Someone, I believe here, had the presence of mind to post this classification system of Facial Pain elsewhere on the site.
Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia is a disorder of the 5th cranial nerve. Where are the studies? I scour the web. I see the definition. I fit it perfectly. I see many here who do. I go to site after site after site and see two classifications of Facial Pain, even at the sites of some major institutions. Not good.
Atypical Facial Pain can be anywhere in one's face. WHAT? It's the diagnosis I got from my Neuro! I read that it has psychological factors involved. Uh . . . . no. I'm not in denial, either. I've tried to think it away. I'm not depressed. I don't think specific pain in my face up.
ATFP for an ATN patient, if I have to scream it from the rafters, is not the same as Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia, which specifically involves the Trigeminal Nerve, but is not Type I TN.
So, when misdiagnosed with Atypical Facial Pain, Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia Patients are misdiagnosed, and thus, incorrectly treated.
Apparently, the "National Pain Foundation" concurs with Dr. Kim Burchiel's Classification system, as it can be found at the link below, as well. I've also posted it. I hope that this is helpful!
In order to simplify and clarify the diagnosis of the trigeminal neuralgia and eliminate some of the confusion produced by difference in terminology, Dr. Kim Burchiel (Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurological Surgery, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR) has proposed a new classification scheme for the diagnosis of facial pain. This scheme is based on the underlying causes of the pain and has implications for treatment:
Trigeminal neuralgia, type 1, (TN1): facial pain of spontaneous onset with greater than 50% of pain limited to the duration of an episode of pain (temporary pain).
Trigeminal neuralgia, type 2, (TN2): facial pain of spontaneous onset with greater than 50% as a constant pain.
Trigeminal neuropathic pain, (TNP): facial pain resulting from unintentional injury to the trigeminal system from facial trauma, oral surgery, ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery, root injury from posterior fossa or skull base surgery, stroke, etc.
Trigeminal deafferentation pain, (TDP): facial pain in a region of trigeminal numbness resulting from intentional injury to the trigeminal system from procedures that are typically performed for treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (eg. neurectomy, gangliolysis, rhizotomy, radiosurgery, nucleotomy, tractotomy, or other denervating procedures)
Symptomatic trigeminal neuralgia, (STN): pain resulting from multiple sclerosis.
Secondary trigeminal neuralgia: pain resulting from anatomical abnormalities that affect the trigeminal nerve such as tumors, aneurysms, etc.
Postherpetic neuralgia, (PHN): pain resulting from trigeminal Herpes zoster outbreak.
Atypical facial pain, (AFP): pain predominantly having a psychological rather than a physiological origin.
Thanks for that link Stef … I’ve answered the questionnaire and received the definitive diagnosis of symptomatic trigeminal neuralgia (STN), I suppose due to the fact I ticked MS. I had that diagnosis many years ago based on clinical findings at the time, but have been asymptomatic for 20 years. Is STN just the next stage I wonder?