My name is Khubaib, and I am a male, 28 years old. I am a TNA member, and would like to share my disease history. It might be useful for other patients.
I was diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia 5 to 6 years ago, when I started having intense, shocking pain in the right side of my face. It would seem to start from inside my right ear, and go into the right jaw. Originally, I went to an ENT specialist, thinking that there might be some infection in my ear, but couldn’t get it fixed. Finally, I remember after few painful weeks, I ended up in a neurologist office, and he diagnosed me with Trigeminal Neuralgia, and prescribed Neurontin (Gabapentin). It was like a gift from heaven. As soon as I started taking it, the pain was gone.
Anyways, since then, I used to have episodes of pain, sometimes once in a month, or in 2 or 3 months. Intense heat or cold, or chewing something solid (or talking a lot) would seem to trigger the pain, but I could not identify the triggering factor. I would start taking Neurontin, and after 2 or 3 painful days, it would go away. Anyways, as you can imagine, my life was not good with it, as I always had this fear of pain, even when I was out of it. Anywhere I go, I had to take my medicine with me, even when I go to school every day.
Two years ago, I went to the dentist for a routine checkup, and he told me that my bottom right wisdom tooth was horizontally impacted, and it was pushing against the adjacent molar tooth, creating a cavity there. He suggested to get the wisdom tooth extracted. Incidentally, I told him my Trigeminal Neuralgia problem in the right side of the face. And he suggested that the nerve could have been pressed by this impacted wisdom tooth, so I should definitely get it extracted. I went back to my neurologist, and asked him if impacted wisdom tooth could be the problem. He categorically ruled it out, telling me that the kind of symptoms I have are not consistent with the pain because of an impacted wisdom tooth.
Anyways, since I had to extract the tooth because it was creating a cavity, I went through the surgery (got all 4 out), and surprisingly, since then (almost 2 years now), I don’t have any TN face pain. My pain has gone, completely. I have never been without the pain for so long, so I hope that it was really the impacted wisdom tooth.
I am writing here because I wanted to know if that has happened to other people as well, and what do other people think about it. thanks,
p.s.: I never went back to the neurologist.