TN or Dental?
Posted , 4 users are following.
Back in December 2016, I started experiencing severe pain in my face, around the same area I had a tooth with a small hole in, since I knew I could not get to a dentist fast I used a temporary filling.
After a few days the pain worsened dramatically and I made an emergency appointment, where the dentist told me that my teeth were fine, I would just need a filling put in place soon. Extremely frustrated, I went to my doctor, since the dentist suggested I could have a sinus infection. The doctor checked for that and said no, but it sounded like Trigeminal Neuralgia. He gave me carbamazpine, which helped reduce the pain quite a bit, quickly, too. However this only dulled the pain and it was still severe despite this. I tried upping the dose but this made me feel strange so I remained on the lower dose. I then went to another dentist, after a few appointments, they decided to do a root canal. This was done over two appointments because of the severity of pain I experienced during the procedure. Although seemingly completely numbed, I experienced severe pain whilst the rubber sheet (dam) was placed (it felt as though all of my teeth on the right side of my mouth were going to come straight out within a matter of seconds.) This was clearly quite frustrating for the dentist because I was crying in pain and shaking quite a bit. I also felt extreme pain during the nerve extraction - so bad I felt dizzy and as though I was going to vomit or pass out. However after this treatement, the constant pain calmed dramatically, but it was still there along with shooting pains throughout my face. - Note I also felt the shooting pains in my face when numbed. I did not feel pain during the drilling of the tooth.
I'm now on amitryptiline for my back and neck pain, which seems to also help very much with my supposed trigeminal neuralgia. I also experience pains throughout the rest of my body but those are not as frequent but have been at the same or of higher severity.
1 like, 2 replies
gill32586 frankie10648
Posted
Hello Frankie,
Sorry to hear that you're in pain and I do hope you'll soon be free of it. T.N can cause pain which can seems to be in the teeth or jaw or and many people have unecessary dental treatment or tooth removal as the pain is felt in that area even though the teeth are healthy.. I hope you have a dentist who thoroughly understands T.N as many are aware of this but have no expertise. I'm very lucky as mine has a special interest and is especially careful.
You do need to get an appt with a neurologist to get a diagnosis as most of you the pain you feel elsewhere could be temporary and only an expert could really diagnose. Your doctor is giving you medication which is usual for T.N. but also has other uses. Only an MRI scan will tell you if you have TN..
I do hope you're soon feeling better and that you're back to normal. Let's hope this is temporary clears up very soon.soon .
Best Wishes, Gill
beth97678 frankie10648
Posted
Hi,I'm sorry you have this horrible pain.It seems that there are 2 things that may have been going on at the same time here.You said you had a hole in your tooth which you temporarily filled yourself-and the pain got worse after that.This is typical of abscess pain-the pressure of the abcess growing woild put pressure on the nerve.If you have an abcess around a nerve,the pain relief the dentist injects will not get through thatabcess liquid(which is why docs or dentists give you antibiotics toreduce the infection).The fact that Carbamazepine worked quickly(even if it just dulled the pain but didn't remove it altogether) is a good indication that this was nerve pain.Amitryptaline will help with nerve pain also.It's usually given in the evening as it can make you very sleepy.Carbamazepine is titrated upwards till you get maximum pain relief withh minimum woozyness.It's used with Pregabalin to help with trigeminal neuralgia.You really need an MRI scan to see if any blood vessels are looping over and rubbing on any nerves in your face.My daughter went to The Walton Centre in Liverpool UK.Hope this helps -and I hope your pain is more controlled than it was.