Hello,
I've had bilateral ATN for 4 years, and have been on countless medications with minimal effect. Last October, I had 5 small botox injections along the masseter and this had no effect at all. I then had one large injection right in the bulge of the masseter, and my pain dramatically went down. I was even able to cut my painkiller dosage by 2/3.
This shows that the location of botox is a very important consideration. Most doctors do botox for cosmetic reasons, not for ATN, so they inject all along the masseter, as it's done for cosmetic slimming. If you tried botox with no effect, I highly recommend trying again and make sure they inject it in the right places.
Which brings me to my question: I've been trying to find more information about where are the best places to have botox injected (other than bulge of the masseter), but I can't dig up anything specific. I'm hoping that by finding all the right areas, I can get all branches of the trigeminal nerve to relax and maybe even live a normal life.
Any information is greatly appreciated!
Thank you.
Hi Bandalar
Thanks for sharing your success with Botox. Something I am considering too. I don’t know much about it at this point though.
Bellalarke
I have had mult injections behind and in front of the ear for ear pain. Injections in the zygomatic arch of the cheekbone, around the eye for spasms. And lastly one behind the head at the midline base for pain behind eye. My Dr. admitted she had given me a low dose, so I did not have a great response from it, only 20 % reduction in pain; so next time I'll be getting a larger dosage.
In the past I've had it around the eye mult times for spasms and worked great for that, must have been a bigger dose.
Just had injections in the masseters of 30 units per side. I'm thinking of getting botox for the other 2 branches of the trigeminal nerve, but I'm still not sure where else will be helpful.
Anyone else have any ideas?
I am also considering botox, but has anyone had adverse reactions to it? I am afraid of the nerve being further irritated rather then calmed. Can the pressure of the needle being injected into the face cause a reaction of TN pain?
I have ATN, so I don't have trigger points. Nothing spontaneously causes pain, whether its wind, shaving, a massage, etc. If you have standard trigeminal neuralgia you may want to poke around near the bulge of the masseter (easy to find when you clench down really hard) and see if you have trigger points around there that could make botox problematic.
elstep said:
I am also considering botox, but has anyone had adverse reactions to it? I am afraid of the nerve being further irritated rather then calmed. Can the pressure of the needle being injected into the face cause a reaction of TN pain?
I would read everyyyyything botox on here first! Put the word in the search box - and I would print off a TN / facial pain image from google images -- take it for a consultation before I had a needle in my face..... dentist scary enough!
Maybe there is a botox group under the groups tab....
Also hunt around on the TNA/face pain site - must be stuff there too!
Still cant find anything on V2 or V3 branch, guess I'll try to find a neurologist who can do botox.
As an update, I had 30 units of botox on each masseter, which is a LOT (and quite expensive I might add). My masseter is largely frozen. I can still chew and eat with no problem at all, and the pain is way down.
With Botox, 2mg of Lorazepam per night and a little baclofen, my pain is finally down to a reasonable level.
I have the migraine injections, believe it or not it does seem to help. I have been getting these every 3 months for about 9 months. My second round my neuro tried some in my trigger points of pain to see if it would help…big mistake. I spent a good 3 weeks really hurting. My main trigger point is middle of the cheek, between the mandible & maxilla, almost where the diagrams show the trigeminal ganglion. I now just stick with the migraine protocol, forehead, temple, head, neck & some in the masseter. He stays away from my danger zone!
Live & learn. There is a protocol for hemifacial spasm that does include the eye area.
Insurance covers mine. Like I stated I do get some relief. Mainly on the migraine or cluster headache end, Tegretol is my first line of TN treatment.