I saw the neurologist today. I'm staying on the 400 mg carbamazapine twice daily for now but he changed it to ER form since I have found that I can't take 3 doses a day without getting sick. He said that this appears to be trauma induced trigeminal neuralgia from the car accident with an exacerbation from the dental work (needle into the mandibular branch). He wants to get the dose to where the pain is gone but if the dose gets too high and the pain isn't gone he will try other meds. He said if the meds fail to control the pain he will refer me to a neurosurgeon. He said if the pain is controlled he wants me to be to the point where I am pain free for 6 weeks. If pain free for 6 weeks he will taper down the medication to see if I can get off of it without the pain returning. I'm so new to this I think it makes sense but I'm not completely sure. My jaw is hurting a lot today between eating and the wind blowing through my scarf when I went out. All I can do is hope this all works. Waiting for my lab results to come back in the mean time.
Got my fingers crossed for you.