What is Trigeminal Neuralgia and Why is it called a Suicide disease?

Many patients come with complaints of difficulty in chewing & severe pain in the teeth. In trigeminal neuralgia, shooting, sharp attacks come in paroxysms. People will get all their teeth removed to get relief from pain. They will go from one specialty to other specialties for months taking and trying different sorts of neuropathic tablets. There are also stories of patients who committed suicide being unable to bear the pain.

There are three different approaches to pain relief in patients who are suffering from this type of facial pain. The first is taking tablets. If not relief even after three months of medication doctors will advise the second approach which is Radio-frequency ablation in which the nerves responsible for the cause of pain will be burnt. The third approach of treatment is brain operation in which a small cushion will be put in between the nerve and the blood vessel which is a major operation.

Usually, for young patients below 40 years, doctors suggest open brain operation, and for patients above 40years, Radio-frequency treatment seems to give good relief of pain. There is no cutting, suture, or scar in the Radio-frequency procedure. But it needs to be repeated after twelve to eighteen months as nerves will start regenerating. The good news is patients who undergo this procedure can go ahead with their job and daily activities after the procedure the very next day.

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