Neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve: symptoms, treatment

The tee nerve provides sensitivity to the face area. This paired nerve is called trigeminal, because it has three branches. In total there are twelve pairs of cranial nerves. One of the three branches of the trigeminal nerve is responsible for the sensitivity function of the forehead and eye area, the second branch is responsible for the lower eyelid, nostrils, cheeks, upper lip, the third is the area of ​​the lower jaw, some chewing muscles and the lower lip.

Pain in neuralgia usually affects the lower part of the face, the upper and lower jaw. In addition, there is a lesion of the nose, forehead above the eyebrows and cheeks. Often there are cases that pain in neuralgia is mistaken for dental pain. A visit to the dentist does not bring relief, because it does not eliminate the true cause of the pain.

Symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia.

The main symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia are determined by acute severe pains in the lower part of the face, cheek, upper and lower jaw, areas around the nose and above the eyebrows, as well as lacrimation, drooling, redness( hyperemia), hypersensitivity or numbness in the lips, jaws, The wing of the nose.

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Neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve also causes involuntary reflex reductions in chewing and facial muscles.
Tibetan medicine attributes the phenomenon of neuralgia to the imbalance of the regulatory system of the Rung - nervous regulation. The most frequent causes of trigeminal neuralgia symptoms are the processes of nerve compression by blood vessels, veins or arteries, multiple sclerosis, swelling, inflammatory processes in the paranasal sinuses, facial trauma, unsuccessful dental treatment, viral infection or herpes zoster.
Acute and painful pain in neuralgia resembles a sharp electric shock. Attacks of pain can provoke any, even the easiest, touch to the face, shaving, brushing teeth, applying makeup, washing, strong wind gusts, movement of facial muscles during conversation or a smile.
Most often this disease affects women of advanced age. Men are less prone to this disease. Two types of neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve were identified depending on the nature of typical or atypical pain.
To the first type of disease are periodically arising shooting pains, provoked by a touch to the face. To the second type of neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve, which requires more serious treatment, the pain can be clearly palpable, lasts a long time and is able to cover a significant area of ​​the face.
In addition, neuralgia is also divided into primary trigeminal neuralgia and secondary. Inflammation, swelling, trauma - with such phenomena there is a primary neuralgia of the nerve. Symptoms of secondary neuralgia arise from complications in the primary disease.
Depending on the localization of inflammation processes, trigeminal neuralgia is also divided into peripheral and central.

Treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.

When the doctor reveals the trigeminal neuralgia characteristic of the diagnosis: symptoms, treatment and course of therapy imply the use of medication, analgesics and anticonvulsant and analgesic drugs. However, such treatment does not solve the problem radically, since drugs do not affect the causes of the symptoms. Successful treatment of trigeminal neuralgia is possible under conditions of complex effects in order to eliminate these causes. This approach has been used since ancient times in Tibetan medicine.
Before starting the treatment process, it is necessary first to establish the cause of the disease, to differentiate it from the neuralgia of the facial nerve, muscle pain of the face, the glossopharyngeal nerve associated with prolonged overstrain of the facial muscles.
After the disease is diagnosed, the cause is established, the characteristic symptoms are revealed, the treatment is appointed in a complex way. Individual treatment includes medical procedures, phytotherapy, pharmacopuncture with the aim of eliminating the full complex of symptoms. Carbamazepine, which is a chemical derivative of iminostilbene, is chosen as the main drug of treatment. Its anticonvulsant effect is determined by blocking the passage of a pain pulse at the level of the trigeminal nucleus of thalamic nuclei and the spinal tract. In the CIS countries, carbamazepine is known as finlepsin.
In its structure, carbamazepine refers to tricyclic antidepressants, its GABAergic properties play an important role in the mechanism of action. There are contraindications to the use of carbamazepine - atrioventricular blockade, glaucoma, small epileptic seizures, hypersensitivity to the drug, bone marrow diseases.
The analgesic effect of the drug lasts for three to four hours. If the action time is shorter, the dose should be increased. If there is no analgesic effect, then in the case go to another anticonvulsant called diphenin( phenytoin).Contraindications to the drug are detected with heart failure, liver disease, kidney.
When a positive result is achieved after a single admission of carbamazepine( total daily dose) - if the patient is able to talk for a few hours, wash and brush his teeth, take food, then the prescribed daily dose is left for one month, then slowly reduced( 50 mg twice a dayWeek).With the characteristic occurrence of minor painful paroxysms, it is necessary to return to the usual daily dose. The drug carbamazepine is taken for a long time, several months and even years. Abolish this anticonvulsant in the absence of trigeminal paroxysms.
In Tibetan medicine, a technique for treating neuralgia with the help of a set of procedures for local medicine - acupressure, acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, the use of phytopreparations, improving blood supply and normalizing the work of blood vessels, has been developed. The drugs also have an anti-inflammatory effect.