It's hard to tell from the description of your symptoms what you really have. By doctor, do you mean a dentist, an oral surgeon, a general practitioner, or neurologist? B vitamins are not a standard treatment for TN, but a deficiency in certain B vitamins can cause nerve problems. Deficiencies can be detected via blood tests. Tegretol quietens misfiring nerves so that it doesn't cause us so much pain. I take it myself and find it to be highly effective.
Trigeminal neuralgia is diagnosed when people experience pain along one or more branches of the trigeminal nerve. (Neuralgia means pain of the nerves) It's interesting that you experience numbness on the opposite side from where your dental surgery was done. If it was just on the same side, then I'd say your dentist damaged your nerves and caused numbness. If you're now having numbness that's on the other side, then I think you should see a neurologist and get a MRI done to rule out more serious pathology. Most people only experience pain on one side...I only experience pain on my right side V3 branch. There are members here who have bilateral TN so it's not impossible, just rare.
This is a forum for patients to share experiences, but we're not trained doctors and even if we were, we'd need to see you in person to diagnose you. Please seek the medical help you need from qualified professionals.
I also had my problems start because of dental surgery, so I can relate to what you're going through right now. Hang in there! I wish you all the best in getting accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.
I've numbness in the same side of the removed wisdom teeth, but I feel this numbness in the cheek when my tongue touch the gum beside teeth in the lower jaw. (the same side of the removed teeth)
5 days ago I feel the numbness when my tongue touch the gum in my mouth , the numbness in the same side of the removed teeth but i feel it when my tongue touch any gum in my mouth.
Is TN begin with numbness then it develpe into pain ?
I visited neurologist and he said some damage in the TN nerve
If the numbness and pain is on the same side as the removed teeth, then I agree with your neurologist, you have some damage to a trigeminal nerve branch. If the dentist damaged it while removing your wisdom teeth, then you might have numbness on the teeth and gums on the same quadrant (by quadrant, I mean upper left, lower left, upper right, or lower right) as the damaged nerve branch. Nerve damage can happen through the removal of the lower wisdom teeth in particular, since they can grow close to the inferior alveolar nerves. Is your numbness and pain only on the lower right area? Anatomically, it is unlikely that your upper teeth/gums or left side teeth/gums would be affected if this were a case of nerve damage... Did you have any pain before you got the dental work?
Numbness developing into pain is not really trigeminal neuralgia in the current diagnostic criteria. Technically trigeminal neuralgia means pain of the trigeminal nerves, which you are experiencing, but what you have and what most people with TN have is quite different. When nerve pain develops due to a numbness caused by nerve injury, it's more accurately diagnosed as deafferentation pain. The response to treatment and treatment options are quite different when dealing with deafferentation pain versus classic trigeminal neuralgia. There is some overlap. The anticonvulsant and antidepressant medications used for quieting the pain of TN are also used to treat deafferentation pain. However, the surgical options are definitely different. If you try to surgically treat this like you would classic TN, you can risk making it even worse.
Again, it's hard for me (and anyone here) to tell without seeing you in person, and we're not trained doctors. I've done a lot of reading on this since my case is also due to dental work.
SimSim, I think you've gotten good advice from Toothache. The pattern of numbness you are describing might be called "parasthesia". It is sometimes (not always) seen as a precursor for eventual emergence of a more developed or elaborated pain. The emergence of this numbness immediately after dental work suggests possible nerve damage and neuropathy rather than trigeminal neuralgia. However, the spread of this numbness to the other side of your mouth where you had no dental extraction is unusual and atypical.
I think you need to be worked up by a neurologist who is knowledgeable of trigeminal neuralgia and neuropathy.
Regards and best,
Red Lawhern, Ph.D.
Moderator and Resident Research Analyst, Living With TN
FYI: although I've studied the medical literature of chronic neurological face pain for nearly 20 years, I am not a licensed or trained physician.