Hi everyone. I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little about my story. I was just diagnosed with ATN about a month ago. The pain was triggered by eating. I bit down into a piece of chicken and had a sharp shooting electric shock like pain on the right side of my face. Since then I had pain in my teeth that was excruciating. First it was one tooth, then another. My dentist did a root canal and that didn't help. I knew something was wrong when the antibiotic didn't help and the heavy pain pills didn't work. I had never heard of TN though so I went ahead with the root canal hoping it would fix the pain. After the root canal sometimes the pain would be burning and sometimes I felt a crushing pain. It was horrible. Sometimes it felt like an infected tooth but much worse. The pain was constant. I had more x-rays done at the dentist and he couldn't find an infection, so I started looking online. I found things about ATN and I thought wow that is just like me! I went to the primary care physician and he thought it was TMJ and referred me to a neurologist. I knew it wasn't TMJ because I never grind my teeth. I also had been taking a medication called Topomax already and it seemed to heal the pain, but I kept trying to go off the topomax because of weight loss. Every time I would lower the dose on the Topomax the pain would come back. So I went to the neurologist, and he diagnosed me immediately with ATN. He weened me off the Topomax at the same time started me on Tegretol. The Tegretol actually worked! After about a month though I started having pain in a different tooth, so I had to raise the dose of the Tegretol. I just raised the dose of Tegretol yesterday, so we'll see how this goes. So far I have been mostly pain free today! So far I have had an MRI, an ultrasound and a blood test. My neurologist is very thorough.
Hi Saoirse and welcome to the site. You could pretty much rub your name out of the story and insert a good many of the people here because we're all singing in the same choir! The eating, pain, dentist , forking out money thing rings true with so many people . It always helps to actually get a diagnosis.
I have ATN as well and the Tegretol has kept the stabbing pains at bay for a while but doesn't help me with numbness and aching. Can't have everything I guess!
Hi and welcome,
Your story is starts out just like mine too--with one tooth, a lot of pills and an unnecessary root canal. I am glad that you have a diagnosis and are having some success with medication. That is a good sign. Sometimes an increase is all that's needed to keep it at bay. This is an amazing site. Everyone here is very helpful, knowledgeable and compassionate.
Jane
Welcome - I am also new here but I feel so fortunate to have found this website. There is a wealth of information available and wonderful people to help when you need help. I'm glad you were able to find a good neurologist. It took me 30 years to get a diagnosis.
I hope things continue to go well for you :)