After trying Gabapentin with no results, I tried dry needling. My physical therapist had done dry needling on hands and legs, but never on the face. My trigem was in the face, specifically on the right side. It would go from my ear down along my face/jaw and into my cheek. My physical therapist was currently going to classes to learn dry needling in the face. I agreed to allow her to do it so we pretty much worked together. I helped her in school because she could tell them what she did and how my face reacted and they could guide her from there. It took about 5-6 weeks before I saw improvement but things got really good. Dry needling consisted of her taking a needle and putting it into the muscle that was pressing against the inflamed nerves and counting to about 4-5 and then taking it out. The muscle would jump and contract. The muscle retracts and doesn’t press up against the nerves relieving the pain. I started out having it down twice a week and then slowly weaned down. When I stopped I was having it done once every two - three weeks. I can’t say that it wasn’t without pain, but it was minimal compared to the pain of trigem and the results were wonderful! Unfortunately, I was then diagnosed with cancer and could no longer do dry needling due to risk of infection from my compromised immune system. My oncologist was unsure if the chemo I was given (Taxol) would enflame my nerves again or calm them because it typically causes neuropathy. However, my nerves remained calmed so it was a blessing! The cancer is now gone and so is my trigem!!!