I have been experiencing break through pain for the past 2 weeks and I have had enough. I have become creative once again for washing my face, brushing my teeth, and blowing my nose. all pain in sectioned on the right side, along the cheek bone and filters in between my nose and upper lip. I currently take 300 mg Gabapentin x 3 times a day.
Has anyone tried Accupuncture and if you have has it helped relieve the pain and numbness?
Acupuncture has a mixed record -- helps some people and not others. The Trigeminal Neuralgia Association has hosted forums on the subject in past national conferences. Suggest you contact their national office in Gainesville FL to inquire about availability of video tapes made of some of those forums during conference.
Likewise be aware that your present dose level on Gabapentin is nowhere close to maximum recommended daily dose. Thus suppression of your breakthrough pain may be aided by an increased dose level. You should talk with the prescribing physician about tapering up. Don't do it unilaterally without consultation, please.
Hi Donna,
After years of pain and multiple conventional medical treatments, I finally tried acupuncture. I have been going twice a week since March and for the first time ever I am going DAYS without pain.
I would encourage you to try it and find someone who will also do cupping on you. This has helped immensely and I am convinced that without this discovery, I would still be suffering.
Let me know how it goes ~
Christine
Thank you Red and Christine,
My husband saw the accupuncturist, who is also a physician from Poland, she was able to provide him rellief from an episode of bells palsy. I am going to schedule an appointment with her and inquire about cupping. This is the longest bout of TN without some relief I have experienced. I was diagnosed in 2008 so I am still new to the disease – with the exception to a car accident I have managed well on the Gabapentin. As my job is to train end users in a computer program for my company, I am speaking 5 days a week.
hello --
as red noted, the evidence is mixed. i found two articles of possible interest.
H. Sert, B. Usta, B. Muslu, and M. Gozdemir, “Letter to the Editor: Successful Treatment of a Resistance Trigeminal Neuralgia Patient by Acupuncture,” Clinics 64(12):1255-1226 (December, 2009), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2797593/pdf/cln_64p1225..., report a case study of a woman treated with acupuncture for trigeminal neuralgia. after four sessions, she was “almost pain-free”; after fourteen sessions, she was “completely free of pain” and was still pain-free after six months.
On the other hand, H. Liu, M. Xu, K. F. Chung, and S. P. Zhang, “A Systematic Review on Acupuncture for Trigeminal Neuralgia,” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 16(6):30-35 (November-December, 2010), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21280460, reviewed twelve studies of acupuncture and found that only four showed more benefit from acupuncture than from carbamazepine. They concluded, moreover, that the evidence from all of the studies was “weak” because of the low methodological quality of the studies’ design.
-- susie margaret