How to Overcome Trigeminal Pain

You lightly touch your cheek and feel intense pain for 10 to 15 seconds before it subsides. Or brushing your teeth is unbearable at times. This could be trigeminal pain from neuralgia. Although rare, it does occur and does not have a cure. The fifth cranial nerve is responsible for this condition that affects children and adults alike. Simple daily tasks or a change in temperature can trigger an attack. Overcoming the pain is a process that is unique to you and your experience, which will mean relying on conventional and alternative medicine options and pain management techniques.

Instructions

Exhaust Conventional Medicine Options

• 1

  Experiment with medication to decrease pain. Medications that help are anticonvulsants (carbatrol, gabapentin) and antispasmodics (baclofen), according to the Mayo Clinic. Also, painkillers and antidepressants such as amitriptyline are used. Usually, medication is the first suggested treatment. Yet, the side effects can be worse than the condition. Give yourself enough time to thoroughly try and evaluate several medications.

• 2

  Ask your doctor if injections are right for you. Alcohol and glycerol injections for this condition are successful with some patients. Alcohol injections numb a part of your face where pain is happening. A sterile glycerol injection is put in the trigeminal cistern to deaden the nerves responsible for the pain.

• 3

  Research surgical options for the pain. According to Dr. Miraj N. Siddiqui, surgeries either deaden or decompress nerves. Microvascular decompression, electric current, balloon compression and nerve severing are all surgical options.

  Eighty to 90 percent of patients who undergo surgery are typically pain-free for a year and 50 percent remain this way for up to five years, according to a clinical review article written by Dr. Miraj N Siddiqui et al., published in the 2003 in the "Hospital Physician." Yet, the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association warns that those with atypical pain (not helped with medications) may experience a worsening of symptoms after surgery.

Find Alternative Medicine Options

• 4

  Explore alternative medicine options for treatment. Although research does not conclusively support that these techniques are effective, the Mayo Clinic suggests you try acupuncture, biofeedback or vitamin therapy.

• 5

  Relieve muscular tension and stress. Myofascial release therapy or chiropractic reduces muscular tension that makes the pain worse, according to the facial neuralgia organization. Even self-hypnosis can reduce the stress and anxiety that accompanies chronic pain.

• 6

  Use herbal remedies. Certain herbs might decrease pain. Everyday Health's website recommends ginger or capsaicin found in peppers for pain. Flower essences are tinctures that you put under your tongue for anxiety or pain (impatiens) to provide immediate relief.

Learn Pain Management Tools

• 7

  Find a method to relax that works for you. Relaxation techniques such as meditation or yoga teach you to transcend pain or minimize the stress that increases it. Getting a massage or writing positive affirmations also can work.

• 8

  Keep a pain log. The American Chronic Pain Association recommends use of a pain log for trigeminal neuralgia. You can track how sleep patterns, diet, mood and exercise affect your pain levels. Until you write it down, you cannot know what is working, or not, for your symptoms.

• 9

  Practice breathing techniques. The single-nostril breathing technique can relax the body and mind. You practice breathing in and out through the left nostril for 10 breaths. Then switch to the other side for the same amount of breaths. During a pain attack, slow breathing might lessen the intensity. How to Cope with Pain's website suggests using aromatherapy while doing deep breathing for pain management.