Facial Pain
By Dr. Linda Niessen -- Baylor College of Dentistry STORY: FACIAL PAIN SCRIPT #506 SHOOT: 4/17/03 AIRDATE: Monday, April 28, 2003
Monday, April 28, 2003
Diane Nabholtz suffers from a mysterious disorder that causes severe facial pain. So does Nancy Ellsworth. Both women describe the condition the same way.
“Best way I could describe it is like an electric shock,” Ellsworth said. “When it first happened and it would hurt, I would visualize it like lightning. It felt like a lightning bolt going up there.”
“I was walking out to the car and I stepped through grass and walked to concrete, and I thought I had been hit by lightning,” Nabholtz said.
| For More Information | |
|
Suddenly and violently, the nerve in your face can fire and cause severe pain. The nerve is named the trigeminal. And the condition is called trigeminal neuralgia.
“You’ve got a nerve that’s firing more than it should,” Dr. Steven Bender said.
After seeing many doctors and trying variety of treatments, Ellsworth finally got relief from injections.
Bender, a dentist specializing in head and facial pain, injects an anesthetic and a steroid.
“[It allows] this nerve a period of time where it’s shut off,” Bender said.
Nabholtz gets relief from the pain by taking a drug called Trileptal that controls epileptic seizures. She also takes an antidepressant.
“[We’re] reprogramming those chemicals in that nerve transmission,” Bender said.
“I have had no trouble at all since I started taking the medication.,” Nabholtz said.
“And so I’m not having any pain in that nerve anymore,” Ellsworth said.
When facial pain occurs suddenly like an electric shock, think of the trigeminal nerve. New treatment can eliminate the pain and improve your quality of life.
Dr. Linda Niessen, clinical professor in the Department of Restorative Sciences and the Office of Communications and Development at Baylor College of Dentistry, hosts Dental Health Check, the only weekly dental feature shot on location in the nation.
