PRIOR to the sitting on my bed reading a book incident which was the full fledged attack of TN I had the following occur within a month or so-
A) Driving in my car, chewing a piece of gum, (which I very rarely do btw), down bite...AGONY.
I about jumped out of my car. Was a stop light thankfully and had to work through it in traffic. Thought tooth problem but the pain eventually went away and I didn't look into it any further.
B) Awoke two mornings in a row with the WORST head and eye aches I have ever had except maybe for the two honest to god migraines I have ever had which were almost 30 yrs ago. I went to eye doctor and all was ok. I thought the more current head/eye aches were as a result of a new bipolar med I was taking but they were not.
Does anyone think these two incidents were my hint of things to come?
Many TN and ATN patients report "precursor" incidents of pain that have a lot in common with those you describe, Phoebe. Likewise, TN and Migraine headaches are sometimes co-morbid, occurring in the same people. The reasons for this latter connection aren't really clear. But I've heard from TN patients over the years to the effect that they never had a Migraine until after TN began to develop -- and then began to have them frequently. This is not "all" TN patients, but certainly some noticeable number.
My initial pain was due to biting down on the right side of my mouth. This was a year ago and it started me seeing 3 dentists and having a root canal. The initial pain was like the worst toothache in my upper right teeth. After 3 months of initial TN pain, I finally found info about this disorder and was referred to a myofacial pain specialist that helped start me on some treatment. So, was the original "toothache" a precursor to the TN? Definitely, since there was absolutely nothing wrong with my teeth!!
Phoebe - originally, my dentist thought my "bite" was off and that's why I had pain. After having a $5,000 dollar bridge replaced to correct my "bite", I was still in pain. Hard lesson learned for me. I do not believe that "biting down" causes TN at all. But sometimes it seems that way as it did for me in the beginning. I think the "biting down" triggers the TN, like it did for me.
I agree with Mr McGinnis. There are very likely hundreds of thousands of people walking around in pain who have been told that they have TMJ Syndrome or bite problems, who actually have trigeminal neurological pain of some sort. I see no evidence that biting down hard has any bearing on TN at all, except as it might stimulate a trigger zone that was already in place and developing.