What Is Facial Neuralgia?

Facial neuralgia, also commonly known as "trigeminal neuralgia," also known as "face pain," is easily confused with toothache. It is a kind of paroxysmal severe neuralgia that occurs repeatedly in the trigeminal nerve distribution area of the face. Trigeminal neuralgia is one of the common diseases in neurosurgery and neurology. Most trigeminal neuralgias start at the age of 40, mostly in middle-aged and elderly people, especially in women, and the incidence is more on the right than on the left. The disease is characterized by sudden onset, sudden arrest, lightning-like, knife-like, burning-like, intractable, unbearable severe pain in the trigeminal nerve distribution area of the head and face. When you talk, brush your teeth, or breeze your face, it can cause pain, severe pain during paroxysms, which last for a few seconds or minutes, and the pain occurs periodically. The interval between attacks is the same as that of normal people. Patients with trigeminal neuralgia often do not dare to wipe their faces, eat, or even swallow drools, which affects normal life and work. Therefore, this pain is called "the first pain in the world", also known as painful convulsions.

Facial neuralgia

Facial neuralgia, also commonly called "

This disease is a neurological disease characterized by periodic onset of the trigeminal nerve distribution in the face and paroxysmal severe pain. The trigeminal nerve is the Vth pair of brain nerves that govern the sensory and motor functions of the maxillofacial region. There are three branches on the face, namely the trigeminal nerve branch (first branch), maxillary branch (second branch), and mandibular branch (third branch). , Dominate the feelings above the cleft palate, between the cleft palate and cleft palate, and below the cleft palate, respectively

The difference between trigeminal neuralgia and toothache:

1. Toothache is also a very painful disease. Sometimes, especially at the early stage of the onset, it is often misdiagnosed as toothache when visiting the oral cavity. Many patients have their teeth removed, and even the teeth on the affected side have been completely removed, but the pain still cannot be relieved. Toothache is characterized by persistent dull pain or jumping pain, which is confined to the gums, does not radiate to other parts, has no facial and skin sensitization areas, and is not exacerbated by external factors. CT examination can confirm toothache.

2.Typical symptoms of primary trigeminal neuralgia

Primary trigeminal neuralgia is mostly over 40 years of age, and there are many females with no heredity. The onset of pain is generally without warning. Sudden lightning-like, short and very severe pain, such as electrocautery, acupuncture, knife cutting, etc., last for several seconds to 1-2 minutes, and then stop suddenly. Common stimuli in daily life, such as talking, eating, chewing, coughing, washing the face, shaving, brushing your teeth, or blowing in the cold, can be induced. Many patients are terrified and do not dare to eat, talk or wash their faces.

3. Gender and age

Most are over 40 years old, mostly middle-aged and elderly. More women than men.

4. Pain area

The right side is more than the left side, and the pain spreads from one point of the face, mouth, or jaw to one or more branches of the trigeminal nerve. The second and third branches are most common, and the first branch is rare. The pain range does not exceed the midline of the face, nor does it exceed the trigeminal nerve distribution area. Occasionally, bilateral trigeminal neuralgia is 3%.

5. Painful nature

Such as severe cuts, acupuncture, tearing, burning, or electric shock-like unbearable pain, even painful.

6.Inducing factors

Talking, eating, washing your face, shaving, brushing your teeth, and wind blowing can all cause painful attacks. As a result, the patient can't live the whole day, feel debilitated, act cautiously, and even dare not wash his face, brush his teeth, eat, and speak carefully, lest he cause an attack.

7, the law of pain

The onset of trigeminal neuralgia is often unpredictable, and the onset of pain is generally regular. The duration of each pain episode suddenly stopped from only a few seconds to 1 to 2 minutes. The number of episodes is small at the onset of the onset, and the interval is long, ranging from minutes and hours. As the disease progresses, the episodes become more frequent, the interval gradually shortens, and the pain gradually increases and becomes severe. Pain episodes are reduced at night. No discomfort during the intermission.

8, expressions and facial changes

About 60% of the patients had ipsilateral or bilateral tears and drooling when they had pain. Occasionally, uncontrollable twitching of the facial expression muscle is called "painful twitching". Some skin is red, hot, and cold when mixed with about 2.7% pain, and occasionally itching. More than half of the patients pressed or rubbed the affected area to reduce pain, and occasionally chewed or pouted to reduce pain.

9.Nervous system examination

There were no abnormal signs, and a few had reduced facial sensation. Such patients should further inquire about their medical history, especially if they have a history of hypertension, and conduct a comprehensive neurological examination, and if necessary, auxiliary examinations such as lumbar puncture, skull CT and nuclear magnetic resonance to help identify secondary trigeminal neuralgia.