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As chiropractic doctors, we understand the pain of our patientsthey go through. Even a mild strain, no matter where it is located,causes a lot of discomfort. Some conditions are accompanied byexcruciating pain, which usually seems quite intolerable. They aretriggered by most mundane acts which you might not even count inyour daily routine.
In such conditions, we ensure our patient gets maximum relief inminimum possible time. We do realize how patting your face with atissue or removing a fallen eyelash from your cheek can become mostpainful. This might seem not only odd but funny to you that howacts as minor as these can trigger intolerable pain, but he is areal medical condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia.
Basics of Trigeminal Neuralgia
Trigeminal Neuralgia, or tic douloureux, is a difficult namethat is enough to freak you out. You might think of it as anincurable deadly disease, but trust me, it can be managed. Forbetter understanding, let me tell you, there are twelve cranialnerves that run through your body. Out of these twelve cranialnerves, the fifth one is called the Trigeminal nerve.
The core function of this nerve is to supply your face. Now youcan take a guess? As the name indicates, Trigeminal Neuralgia is acondition in which the Trigeminal nerve is affected. In thiscondition, the most prominent symptom is the brain-exploding painthat you often experience in your face.
Multiple pain patterns
In Trigeminal Neuralgia, the areas affected are those suppliedexclusively by the trigeminal nerve, which includes lips, teeth,gums, cheek, jaw, forehead, and eyes. The jolts of pain might bedifferent in different patients. It can follow one or more patternsin you while a completely different pattern in another patient.
You might feel as if someone has connected your face to barewires giving you an electric shock. The pain feels like electriccurrent hitting your bare face. In other conditions, your facemight experience pain only when it is triggered by acts like wipingyour face, chewing, talking, cloth touching your face, and evenyour hair brushing your face. In some patients, the duration ofpain is barely seconds and minutes. These are the lucky ones.
Other patients suffer from long durations of pain which last forweeks and even months. Those people who have constant pain for longdurations develop spasm-like pain. In this chronic pain condition,the pain is mostly on the side of the face, and very rarely affectsboth sides. Some patients often complain of an increase in thefrequency and intensity of pain with the passage of time. In fact,in the very beginning, the pain is usually localized to one spot ora limited area, but with time, the area widens. You see, thepatterns of pain are diverse.
Causes and Triggers
Trigeminal Neuralgia has various causes. It is necessary tofigure them out before the condition worsens. For that, you, as apatient, must co-operate completely by hiding no medical history.When a chiropractic doctor has a complete medical history oftheir patients, they are confident to rule out the cause ofTrigeminal Neuralgia. This condition can be caused by anatomicalissues. There is a possibility that the trigeminal nerve is beingcompressed by an artery or vein due to which it is malfunctioning.Since trigeminal nerve lies at the base of the brain, thereforethere is a high chance for any structure to put pressure on itleading to chronic pain.
Another possibility is the occurrence of a pathologicalcondition, which leads to Trigeminal Neuralgia. Among suchconditions, Multiple sclerosis is the most common cause. It is acondition in which the myelin sheath surrounding the nervedegenerates, leaving the nerve unprotected. Other possibilities forthe cause of Trigeminal Neuralgia are brain surgery or brainlesion. Any trauma to face is also a common cause. When any of thementioned possibilities causes Trigeminal Neuralgia, it becomesnearly impossible to keep the face away from triggers.
All the triggers are nothing grave but very simple andnegligible reasons. Mostly, the patient or their familyunintentionally out of habit commits an act that recruits a suddenjolt of teeth-grinding pain. Triggers include touching your face inanyway way, be it wiping, cleaning, washing, and removing aparticle or thread and talking, chewing, or brushing teeth. Even acool breeze hitting your face is enough to give you a burning pain.We know this is complicated, but you have to be careful with thetriggers.
Common occurrence
Odd fact about trigeminal neuralgia is that it is more commonlyobserved in females as compared to males. Males can exhale a sighof relief here. Also, age is a factor that increases the risk oftrigeminal Neuralgia, making the people above the age of 50 athigher risk.
Diagnosis
Now we will move towards the part which matters the most to yourdiagnosis and treatment. Diagnosis of Trigeminal Neuralgia is noteasy. Chiropractic doctors have to run multiple tests to put aconfirm diagnosis in front of you. Firstly, they will opt for aneurological examination. In this exam, a chiropractic doctor willgently touch your face to figure out which part of your face hurtsthe most. This will help them rule out the branches of theTrigeminal nerve involved in the condition.
Secondly, a chiropractic doctor can perform reflex tests todetermine whether the bouts of face pain are due to compression ofthe Trigeminal nerve or some other condition. MRI is anotherauthentic diagnostic test that confirms the presence of a tumor andmultiple sclerosis. An extended version is MRA in which the dye isinjected in your blood to observe the blood flow. This will confirmif an artery or vein is compressing the Trigeminal nerve andcausing face pain.
Treatment
As far as the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia is concerned,there are various options. A very well-known treatment option isthe chiropractic adjustment. It is a technique that providesrelief in the shortest time span. Chiropractors believe thattrigeminal neuralgia is caused by pressure exerted on the nerve byjaw or vertebrae. In scheduled sessions, vertebra and jaw arealigned to provide permanent relief from facial pain.
Reference
- Trigeminal neuralgia. (2017, July 26). Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trigeminalneuralgia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353344
- You Can Find relief from Trigeminal Neuralgia. (2018,November Retrieved from https://livingvitallife.com/can-find-relief-trigeminal-neuralgia )
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