Patients suffering from trigeminal neuralgia may find worthwhile clinical benefits from acupuncture due the duration of your hospital stay. In a recent study , acupuncture was found to effective in eradicating trigeminal neuralgia conditions with both a excellent ratio of cured patients. Extreme facial pain is caused by Trigeminal neuralgia. The pain is frequently one-sided, piercing, paroxysmal, and agonizing to the point where people commit suicide. The condition is made worse from common daily routines such as chewing, smiling, talking, drinking hot or cold fluids, touching, cold air exposure, and even brushing your teeth.
Medical experts carried out a controlled research test to assess the effectiveness of carbamazepine with acupuncture. The FDA approved carbamazepine, a anticonvulsant drug helpful for controlling seizures in epileptic patients, manic episodes in bipolar patients, and to treat people with trigeminal neuralgia. In the carbamazepine group, 22 out of 40 patients had a complete recovery. In the acupuncture group, a total of 30 out of 40 patients recovered fully. This means there is a cure rate of 75% for acupuncture and 55% for carbamazepine.
Predicated on the results, the researchers recommend adopting a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) method for patients suffering from trigeminal neuralgia by which both prescription medicine and acupuncture are coupled in the method of treatment. Their thoughts are that that this may yield even better results than using just one therapy alone.
The study breakdown for the acupuncture group was 40 outpatients comprised of of 16 males and 24 females between the ages of 45 to 68 with an average symptom period of approximately 9 years. In the carbamazepine group, there were 18 male and 22 female patients spanning 47 to 69 years of age with an average symptom period of roughly 10 years. Prior to their therapy sessions, each patient in both groups went through a CT head scan and a full physical exam. Each patient had identical symptoms consisting of trouble speaking and eating, advanced pain, and muscle cramping in the face.
What the Patients Took (WARNING: Only Take Medicine Prescribed by Your Doctor)
The patients from the carbamazepine group started off with dosages of 100 mg carbamazepine tablets, 2 times daily. Afterwards the rate of consumption was boosted to 4 times each day and adjusted upwards based on the patient’s condition. The most a patient could take was limited 1 g daily. Once the level of pain dropped substantially from a particular dosage in less than 2 days, consumption was adjusted to 500 - 800 mg each day.
The details for the acupuncture group were as follows applying filiform acupuncture needles at the below acupoints:
Tai Yang (Supreme Yang)
LI4 (Hegu, Joining Valley)
LI7 (Wenliu, Warm Flow)
ST7 (Xiaguan, Lower Controller)
Yin Tang (Hall of Impression)
DU20 (Baihui, Hundred Meetings)
GB20 (Fengchi, Wind Pool)
ST6 (Jiache, Jaw Bone)
As acupuncture is a specialized treatment method, the details of application will not be listed here of what needling was applied first.
The advantage of using acupuncture instead of using carbamazepine is that there is no chance of allergic reactions which can become fatal. Furthermore, acupuncture was found to be scientifically more effective than carbamazepine. More importantly, medical researchers recommend that integrating medications with acupuncture may result in even better patient successes than utilizing either treatment solution on its own.