What is LivingWithFacialPain.org?
LivingWithFacialPain.org is a dedicated patient-to-patient support community for patients and families affected by Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) and Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia (GPN), and Persistent Idiopathic Facial Pain. LivingFacialPain.org is powered by BensFriends.org, a group of patient support communities for rare diseases, and is run by volunteer moderators who have been affected with Facial Pain.
Who can join LivingWithFacialPain.org?
If you or your family has been affected by Persistent Idiopathic Facial Pain, consider LivingWithFacialPain.org your second home. LivingWithFacialPain.org, as well as the rest of BensFriends.org’s patient communities, is free for members to join.
What is Persistent Idiopathic Facial Pain?
Chronic facial pain syndromes effect as much as 1% of the population. Two of the better known conditions are Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) and Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia (GPN) even though they are among the rarest. Pain specialists have attempted to classify other Facial Pain Syndromes by a number of names including atypical facial pain, Type 2TN, Type 7TN, Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia (ATN), Trigeminal Neuropathic Pain (TNP) and Atypical Facial Neuralgia (AFP). Recently the term Persistent Idiopathic Facial Pain (PIFP) has been used to describe facial pain that is continuous or lasts most of a day. There simply is no consensus, even among practitioners While this site continues to provide Support for TN and GPN, we have come to realize that many other facial pain patients attempt to deal with their disease within the GPN or TN communities. While there is much in common in dealing with the day to day challenges off Chronic facial pain, there is often frustration among the groups when it comes to treatments both drug, surgical and other interventions. For that reason, we have expanded our opportunities for continued Peer to Peer support to include other Chronic facial pain syndromes. We have chosen to lump them into the Persistent Idiopathic Facial Pain category, while maintaining both the TN and GPN categories. .
What is BensFriends.org?
In 2007, Ben Muñoz suffered a rare form of stroke caused by an Arterio-Veinous Malformation (AVM). He was unable to find the support he needed during the most difficult time, so he created an online support community AVMSurvivors.org to connect with others like him. AVMSurvivors.org led to the founding of BensFriends.org, driven to provide patient-to-patient support communities for people living with rare diseases.
BensFriends.org is a network of patient communities for people living with rare diseases. Launched in November 2007, Bens Friends provides valuable patient support by creating and running compassionate, responsive communities. BensFriends.org maintains dozens of patient communities and has changed thousands of lives. Bens Friends is supported by donations from its principals and community.
You can learn more about BensFriends.org at http://www.bensfriends.org or watch one of our videos at http://www.youtube.com/BensFriendsVideos.