Red,
FYI:
I found what my pain mgmnt doc is talking about it is called "Hyperalgesia." I am just now researching it.
I thought you may want to know.
Laurie
Dear Red, I am new to this site, have read many of your informative and kind posts, and thank you. May I say, your love and devotion to your wife reflects committment we all desire in time of need.
I’d like to ask your opinion on a mandibular block that the dentist uses for mandibular pain of an atypical nature. My dentist is willing to try lidocaine as if he were working on a tooth. I read in another post something about the specific block needed and where it needed to be placed, so am unsure if this is worth a try as not covered by insurance. I replied to it today as my pain under tongue, entire back of tongue, as a result of talking is bad.
My thought process is that when I’ve had muscular nerve pain near a bulging disk and received a series of trigger point lidocaine injections every two weeks, it somehow broke up the spasms.
I know pain management offers some types of injections, but am unsure if the injections they would offer are intra-oral and if they are seasoned as a dentist in placement.
I appreciate your thoughts and time. Kathy
Kathy, nerve blocks can be applied in a number of different places in the face. A mandibular block would generally be placed somewhere along the initial branching of the mandibular nerve, which I recall as being the lower branch of the three which make up the trigeminal system.
From what I read, the nerve block used in intra-oral anesthesia is delivered internal to the mouth against the Inferior Alveolar Nerve. This is not the same thing as a mandibular block, which is delivered further back along the nerve and affects a larger area. SeeMedscape, http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2040639-overview#aw2aab6b2b4
I have read of yet a third nerve block being attempted for trigeminal pain, via the sphenopalatine ganglion. The route of approach for this type of block is through the nose, not the mouth. See the following for an authoritative review of the procedure and its risk factors: http://arizonapain.com/pain-center/pain-treatments/sphenopalatine-ganglion-block/
Especially in the latter type of block, I would suggest that you contact a neurologist or maxillo-facial pain specialist, rather than a general practice dentist.
Please exercise some care in acting upon my description of these procedures. I am not a licensed physician, and my reading of the medical literature on these procedures is relatively shallow. You need to be advised by a physician on the full range of nerve block procedures, and their applicability to you as an individual.
Regards, Red
Hi Barb,
Somehow I stumbled across your post and my neurologist said the same exact thing to me. "You are too young to have what I think you have." Guess he was wrong!