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Living with Neuropathy - Welcome to the group
Neuropathy | Last Active: Oct 27 5:51pm | Replies (6152)Comment receiving replies
Hi there,
My name is Denise and I live in Alberta, Canada. In May of this year I had oral surgery that went sideways. After much literally pain and anguish , I finally got a diagnosis for what is going on.
Post traumatic trigeminal neuropathy.
It is not the shooting facial pain. It is constant pain at the site where my wisdom tooth was pulled on the right side of my mouth . I had been on lyrica for 3 years for neuropathy in my feet. The decision from the oral pain specialist and my family doctor was to increase the lyrica. I have now maxed out on the lyrica. I had slight relief but am now back to constant varying degrees of pain. I could never imagine pain like I have endured in my life. I am being switched to trileptal which I haven't started yet. Apparently I am not a candidate for gamma knife and the radiofrequency ablation in similar cases to mine have not been very successful. I found this group and I am very interested if anyone has the same nerve issue.
I welcome any suggestions, feedback . I have been referred to a neurosurgeon and am waiting to her back.
Thank you:)
Replies to "Hi there, My name is Denise and I live in Alberta, Canada. In May of this..."
Hi Denise, I am on this site now because I developed neuropathy in my feet and lower legs, but 37 years ago after a dental procedure, I too, developed trigeminal neuropathy. It took a long time to diagnose and resulted in the needles extraction - after unsuccessful root canals and apical surgeries - of three teeth. Mine was the shooting pain. I was on nortriptyline and Gabapentin. It helped, but acupuncture made the biggest difference and eventually I was able to get off the Gabapentin (for that but am on it again for the PN) and eventually was switched to amitriptyline which I still take. If you haven’t tried acupuncture you may want to consider it. It took about four sessions before I noticed some improvement and then only needed four more. Now, unless there is a draft or AC directed my way, I don’t have problems with the TGN. I think the tincture of time helped too. Please don’t lose hope. When I was going through that dark time I never thought I would feel well again but I did and I’m confident that you will too. Feel free to write me whenever you like as I walked a similar road years ago.
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Welcome @denisefraser, Sorry to hear the oral surgery went sideways. I can't imagine how awful it is to have that happen and the ensuing struggle to find some relief. You might want to scan through the discussions on Trigeminal Neuralgia to learn what others have shared - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/discussions/?search=Trigeminal%20Neuralgia.
I think @loriesco and @serita may have some thoughts to share on your pain following oral surgery. @serita posted a similar discussion that might be helpful:
-- Shooting pains in the head after getting a tooth implant:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/shooting-pains-in-the-head-after-getting-a-tooth-implant/.
Can you provide an update after you meet with the neurosurgeon?