Does it sound like trigeminal neuralgia?

[littlebigwoman]

Hi,

I don't want to ask my GP yet, as obviously they are busy with serious cases, and mine is not an emergency, but I need info about it.

Couple of months ago, in January, I started have pain attacks in my wisdom tooth. Terrible, hurt even with paracetamol. Went to my dentist, thinking I needed the tooth out, but the tooth was healthy, no issues at all. He prodded and tapped it and somehow it didn't hurt. Went to see another dentist for a second opinion and same thing happened.

Anyway moving to today, I've been having intermittent pain, sometimes caused by mouth movements (like opening wide), sometimes by flossing etc.. the pain gets to a point of being quite intense and my teeth feel weird and wobbly. Then it goes away again.

It's mostly a sharp, burning feeling that gets unbearable and goes sometimes up to my eye.

I found that it could be TN, as a dental issues has been ruled out. Any thoughts on it? Anyone has a similar pain?

I had similar but front tooth seemingly affected. Dentist did multiple x-rays. I was fitted with mouth guard to wear at night to see if teeth grinding was causing the problem.
The dentist said it was possibly TN and referred me to oral and maxillofacial at the hospital. More X-rays & an MRI scan of my head & all they have come back with is Atypical facial pain & suggested gabapentin. It doesn’t help so seemingly I just have to put up with it.

Like imbored I have atypical facial pain - exactly the same diagnosis path, but mine moves around my teeth, which meant I was constantly going back to the dentist, driving her mad.

I refused the nerve meds because I was worried about the side effects, and manage it with alpha lipoid acid, and high dose vitamin B6. Currently in a bit of a flare up which I imagine is due to stress.

Sorry, that should have been B12, not B6.

I have trigeminal neuralgia and have several family members and one friend who also does. It does cause pain in the jaw but the unmistakable characteristic of TN is the horrifically intense shooting pain across the side of your face that runs just under the cheekbone. You can almost imagine it like a lightening strike or seriously strong electric shock. It is so distinctive and intense that the jaw pain, whilst awful, is honestly nothing compared to that. If you don't have the shooting pains across your face then it's not TN and is probably atypical facial pain instead.

I'm not trying to minimise the suffering you're feeling because either way it's really tough and hurts like hell so you absolutely have my sympathy!

Make a GP appointment, it will be a phone call first (unless your GP has EConsult in which case you can send symptoms online) and they may well not need to see you. General practice is still there and you should use it when needed (I work in one), which you do as you're in pain.

Any update OP?

I'm having very similar.

@littlebigwoman sorry forgot to tag you

@littlebigwoman how are you now!? Im the same atm x

Oh god. A girlfriend of mine was diagnosed with this and put on heavy meds, she was wiped out.
It was a tooth (can’t remember what exactly was wrong), that had been missed three times
Get checked again