Has anyone tried this?
http://www.diversifiedhealth.ca/guest-bloggers/finally-relief-for-facial-pain/
This clinic is where I live.
It looks promising but it wouldn't be covered by my medical plan. I'll have to save up.
I had a short discussion with the clinic that offers this therapy on the phone today. It is also called K Laser or Class 4 laser therapy, or low level light therapy (LLLT). Has anyone tried it? I see someone has posted a warning about another kind of laser.
I found another article that is specific to TN and LLLT:
As far as therapies that are available, this looks relatively low risk.
Low Level Laser Illumination techniques and devices have come up many times in discussion here on Living With TN. And I have responded in several of those threads. You'll find some of my earlier responses if you search on Laser at top right of this page.
To summarize: although the web sites of various providers do provide patient testamonials, I have yet to see a SINGLE randomized controlled trial anywhere in medical literature. Not one. This class of treatments is judged "safe" by the US FDA, but it has not been found "effective". As far as I am aware, no Medicare reimbursement code has been issued for it's use in facial neuralgia.
I've also talked with multiple TN patients who have tried the technique and gotten little or no benefit from it despite laying out thousands of dollars. I won't name the worst offender organization here because I don't want to attract the attention of Google to the subject. A couple of the people I've talked to have passed on complaints to various government or news hot lines and one to a District Attorney's office, pretty much without result.
As far as I can tell, there are a good number of high pressure sales experts pushing this class of techniques for highly exorbitant and unreasonable prices that in no way reflect the actual facility or device overhead expenses. They also tend to practice intimidation and threats against people who complain that they haven't been helped. Those are all indicators to me that what we're dealing with in this class of advertised techniques is as phony as a three dollar bill, at least insofar as facial neuralgia is concerned.
So the rule of thumb here is "if it sounds too good to be true... then is most likely is too good to be true." I'd personally advise anyone important to me not to put down money on something like this.
Regards and best,
Red Lawhern, Ph.D.
Resident Research Analyst, LwTN
Thanks for your reply Red. It does seem that there are few scientific studies available. And it is expensive, but not too much more than the medication I'm taking (that is, if the laser therapy does what these articles claim). I'm going to keep doing my research. In the event that my TN becomes more serious I would rather take a risk with something like this than go for surgery. At the clinic near me the recommended number of treatments would cost about $500.
I found this scientific article that verifies increased blood flow from laser therapy:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3418129/?tool=pmcentrez&report=abstract
This one is more specific to TN and pain, but I can only see the abstract:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304394083902112
and another...
http://www.lasercaretherapy.com/downloads/resources/SHINGLES%20HERP...
and this one has a large group of subjects, some with TN
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/clm.1998.16.223?2&
I'll look further into the links you've suggested. But I would suggest it likely that one would get as much increased blood flow from a simple thermal hot pad, as from any laser illumination that doesn't actually burn the skin. Laser light doesn't penetrate deeply; its energy is almost all deposited in the first few millimeters of the skin. And TN is not a disorder of circulation.
You'll be doing very better than some if your financial risk is as low as $500 dollars. I've talked with folks who have dropped over $3,000 for a series of 14 to 20 "treatments" delivered by a nurse practitioner after an initial MD interview. And although I don't want to pick on you or seem dismissive of you as a person, I feel ethically obligated to point out that fear of the alternatives is not a sound reason for selecting any therapeutic procedure -- in TN or any other medical disorder. The more you know about your alternatives, the better is your position for choosing between them. And not much is truly known about LLLI therapies.
Regards, Red
MVD not a high risk … You can research that also…