I am so sorry to hear this. My mom has trigeminal neuralgia. Sometimes it has been hard for her to chew. Cold weather or breezes seem to trigger it or make it worse. She does now have periods of time where she is pain free. They gave her several medications but the side effects were not good. I know one of the medicines she took was Tegretol, an anti convulsant.
Over the years she has learned that she wanted to manage her pain by really trying different things. Some topical solutions seem to help like Lidocaine cream. Plastic surgeons use this a lot for numbing facial areas they want to treat in office. It helps her a lot sometimes making the pain go away completely and other times makes her need less pain medicine.
It has been a trial and error and I know also is the area of the face that is affected differs in each case.
Right now I'm using Orajel on my jaw and along my tooth line, it helps kill the pain long enough to eat. The doc said some people have it for months or years, my symptoms hit once every three months maybe for a few weeks at a time, so it's not as bad as it could be, but it's bad enough.
Carbamazepine worked awesomely for about three days, but caused hives. Gabapentin has bad little effect, but I'm still waiting for the doctor to call back.
It's horrible. At times it feels like an electric shock on the inside of my mouth, other times it feels like someone sticking several ice picks into my teeth.
HORRIBLE. And agonizing.
I will have to talk with the doctor about other options.
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Over the years she has learned that she wanted to manage her pain by really trying different things. Some topical solutions seem to help like Lidocaine cream. Plastic surgeons use this a lot for numbing facial areas they want to treat in office. It helps her a lot sometimes making the pain go away completely and other times makes her need less pain medicine.
It has been a trial and error and I know also is the area of the face that is affected differs in each case.
You are in my thoughts.
Here for you.
(((Hugs)))
Patty
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Thanks.
Right now I'm using Orajel on my jaw and along my tooth line, it helps kill the pain long enough to eat. The doc said some people have it for months or years, my symptoms hit once every three months maybe for a few weeks at a time, so it's not as bad as it could be, but it's bad enough.
Carbamazepine worked awesomely for about three days, but caused hives. Gabapentin has bad little effect, but I'm still waiting for the doctor to call back.
**sigh**
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HORRIBLE. And agonizing.
I will have to talk with the doctor about other options.
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Hope the doctor can help
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