I have been diagnosed with atypical TN couple of years ago, it affects my lower jaw on right side all the teeth in lower jaw hurt, but it is under control with gabapentin (3X300mg). Recently i started getting pain in the upper teeth on the same side. Went to the dentist, he couldn't tell what is wrong, i was wondering if i am getting TN related pain in upper jaw now. Did anyone else experienced this symptoms?
Hi
I get pain in upper jaw and temple, across forehead and into left eye. Occasionally I get pain in lower jaw. Jaw pain always feels like toothache in all my teeth on right side.
Don't know if this will help
Hi,
My pain always starts out on my bottom left side of my teeth. It switches to the top teeth on the same side. One or the other, or sometimes both. It is also sometimes in my jaw, cheek and even my ear. All on the left side.
My tooth pain acts like a tooth ache too. I even had a root canal done on that tooth and still hurts.
Sorry you are going through this :( Be careful with dentists. Don't have anything done unless there is physical evidence of it. TN really mimics tooth pain for some people.
Welcome buttercookie. Sorry to say but TN has 3 branches. I started with what was thought to be TMJ in my lower jaw (lower branch) to my ear but since it causes me more pain than what it's supposed to we are not sure. Like many here it came right after dental work. Then many many years later I had a bridge put in on the same side and it I landed up with TN on the upper jaw (upper branch) at it's worse flare up of pain it will radiate to the (middle branch).
This is how the Neurologist explained it to me and the images of TN will show this.
On a good note I had an upper molar removed this fall, on the left side, (that's where all my pain is) and it didn't make the TN worse but due to pain of the filling that fell out and the tooth that was broken it was a relief to have it out.
Thankfully my dentist who is very sympathetic to TN sufferers referred me to a specialist to be put out by iv and who is experienced with TN and TMJ sufferers.
I would suggest that you go back to your Neurologist. You may just need to up your meds....:(
Best of luck to you,
Cheryl
Sadly yes....my pain was all in lower jaw area for a couple years, then upper teeth/cheek area...and now it's including areas along my temple and behind/near my eye.
So yeah, the pain can be anywhere on any of those three branches of the trigeminal nerve.
If you look up a diagram of the trigeminal nerve, you can see all the areas that can be affected. I just looked at the wiki page for TN, but if you google, there are lots of different images. (sorry, no links...i'm not that tech savvy)
~Mistee
Mistee......like one branch of TN isn't enough!!
Hahaha.....I'm not tech savvy either but at least you knew the word "savvy". :)
I over did it last Friday from lifting and now I've got a knot of nerves along what I think is called Brachial nerves. The space between your shoulder and neck. It's on my left side, everything for me is on my left side. I've had this before but forgot about it. I think if it doesn't subside soon I'll have to go to the Dr's. It's not only affecting my shoulder and arm but it's triggering the TMJ in the lower jaw which can trigger the TN. I just read up on the branches of TN again and realized that my main TN is the middle branch not the upper one that I had thought. Just goes to show how complex TN can be along with all the nerves around it.
It can get confusing especially when on meds! lol I've been having to up my meds and I feel just a tad brain dead!
At least I slept better last night.....:)
Take care all,
Cheryl
Mistee Humphreys Shelton said:
Sadly yes....my pain was all in lower jaw area for a couple years, then upper teeth/cheek area...and now it's including areas along my temple and behind/near my eye.
So yeah, the pain can be anywhere on any of those three branches of the trigeminal nerve.
If you look up a diagram of the trigeminal nerve, you can see all the areas that can be affected. I just looked at the wiki page for TN, but if you google, there are lots of different images. (sorry, no links...i'm not that tech savvy)
~Mistee
Thanks everyone for your responses, it has been helping. I am also diagnosed of having sinus infection, and that might be causing the upper teeth ache. The lower jaw TN has been well controlled but for last few days it triggers when i try to chew something, even on the other side. is that really TN bothering me or something else like something wrong with teeth?
I guess we will always have to live in that fear if is it TN or the tooth?
I had a recent ct scan and found that I have Sinusitis and I find that Hydra Sense or anything like that clears the congestion really helps. I'ts on my left side where my TN and TMJ is. I'm having a flare up of TMJ and it seems to throw off my bite and I also can't chew properly, still not as bad as the TN pain!! I'm wondering now if it's because of swelling? I've been hearing about that a lot lately on this site so maybe if it's swollen a bit it's causing the chewing problem??
Yup, fear, it's a sad state of affairs! The way I've been able to tell if it was a tooth problem or not was to wait. When my TN pain would pass then I could brush my teeth etc. and the "tooth pain" was gone. No need for the dentist.
buttercookie said:
Thanks everyone for your responses, it has been helping. I am also diagnosed of having sinus infection, and that might be causing the upper teeth ache. The lower jaw TN has been well controlled but for last few days it triggers when i try to chew something, even on the other side. is that really TN bothering me or something else like something wrong with teeth?
I guess we will always have to live in that fear if is it TN or the tooth?