Mine on the left is mostly cheekbone (a hard pressing feeling or hammer to the bone) drifts down to the muscle above my rear jaw, and my teeth. Only have had icepick pain in my eye and ear once.(enough). My right side is usually skull, and again, a hard pressing to the bones, or sometimes, I feel like there is a large bubble of pressure, in my brain, that will dissipate if I wait a few minutes. They usually come on suddenly and catch me off guard. If I stay super steady on my meds, I only get about one a day. If not, I have problems till its on board. My newest trigger is, ridding in the car for more than say, thirty minutes. If I go on a road trip, I take extra meds. I have one odd symptom that is not painful but drives me nuts. My sinuses snap and I get a little swelling in my lips and between my lip and nose. It does not throb with pain, but pulses constantly and happens with the snapping sinuses.
Strange you would mention wanting to hit your face. In the early days of T.N. for me (about 10 years ago) I vividly recall punching the right side of my face several times in anger/frustration at not being able to eat when i was so hungry because of this stupid disease that makes you feel excruciating pain for no good reason at all. I'm not sick, injured, cut or broken....it just hurts...that's ridiculous
KRay said:
My triggers are a breeze on that side of my face (even from the car AC), rubbing, scratching or blowing my nose, touching, bumping or rubbing my cheek, and eating. Sometimes, I get burning sensations on my right side of my face and scalp. I feel like a needle is being stuck into my eyeball. I get a little tingling but mostly aching. I feel like I want to hit my face with a hammer to relieve the pain.....not a good idea, I know! :) Most of my pain is at the front of my face and up the bone in my nose.
i'm a real newbie to my condition, but my pain so far is a constant headache that increases to a migraine without warning, which always causes nausea because of the pain. The actual facial pain is a crushing, vice-like pain that lasts for hours, usually starting mid day and not stopping until i finally fall asleep, and sometimes even lingers into the next day. I haven't found any specific triggers yet.
My pain doesn't seem as severe as most of the other's experiences. On my right side, I have pain around and on my ear that is usually triggered from cold or wind. Always thought I had an earache until an ENT told me there was nothing wrong with my ear, On my left side I have moving, throbbing teeth pain and sometimes facial pain from my cheekbones to my chin. I can't figure out yet what triggers the teeth pain besides cold food and liquids. So far the worst pain is at night and will wake me but don't understand what could I have done before I went to bed that several hours later the pain starts. During the day I seem to be busy and can ignore it which tells me I'm not near as bad as most in this site. Did anyone else start out with milder pain like mine? Does it progressly get worse over time?
I haven't figured out all my triggers but my TN symptoms are burning up the left side of my nose. A feeling like someone stabbed my left side of my head above my left eye with a knife or ice pick and left it there. I get pain from behind my left ear. I get pain from my left ear to my left eye. I have numbness from my left nose along the cheek bone and numbness along my upper lip. As far as triggers I can no longer use my C-PAP mask. My glasses touching my nose can set off the burning along my nose but I need my glasses to see. Sleeping on my left side can trigger an episode, I think that is because anything touching my left face triggers episode. Weather fronts make things worse but I think that is because my migraines kick in and I have mixed migraine/TN episodes. Also cold weather makes my TN worse but I think that is because my Fibromyalgia, Myofascial Pain Syndrome and Osteoarthritis get worse which seems to trigger all pain receptors to fire.But mostly I just have a lot of headache pain and burning along the side of my nose for no specific reason other than my TN decided to kick in.
glos-
I had the same problem with my glasses. the Silouette brand is a bit pricy, but they are much lighter weight than typical glasses frames. just FYI.
mrl
I noticed I often triggered by talking, eating and heat. My pain always begin on the right side of the maxillary area, then spread to the right side of mandibulary area, then spread to the left side, after my entire mouth in pain, it would spread to my throat and my cheeck. It is 24/7 burning pain
Just over a year ago I started getting horrible headaches. Then about two months later my face went out. The right side of my face felt like someone was dripping acid on it. I always get this image of my face in my head when the tn strikes. Its me but the my right lower jaw up to my temple, the flesh and muscle is gone, and blackened pockmarked acid scarred skull is underneath. That is how I see my pain. I also have the urge to hit my face. If it wakes me up I usually am holding it in a death grip and moaning. The first time it woke me up, I woke up slapping it. Its worst in winter months. I was put on tegretol temporarily and elavil. When summer came the tn episodes stopped, but the severe headaches continued. I was put on baclofen for the headaches. I just recently found out that the headaches might BE part of the tn. So need to talk to doctor about it.