thats how i found out i had TN. i went to dentist, he sent me to oral surgeon even though he fe;t that it wasnt tooth related. i did have a bad tooth and the oral surgeon ended up pulling it. i still had that terrible pain. i went to the neurologist he sent me to the ENT. they did a catscan and found a cyst blocking my sinuses. i went back to the neurologist he said he thought it was TN and sd to try tegretol and if it was TN then the tegretol should work withing 2 days. boom it worked. i was scheduelled for sinus surgery and did go through with it. i had an allergic reaction to the tegretol so they put me on dilantin. that worked for about a year. nov 6th of this yr i ahd the MVD surgery. i am still recoverring but it took care of the TN. i have had 2 tiny tn attacks but nothing like b4 the surgery. if you have any questions feel free to send me a message..i will respond.
elaine
good luck!

A friend of mine found relief from TN with glyconutrients when Tegretol stopped working for her. No side effects... just pure nutrition. Helps the body heal itself...a new concept in our age. Hope this helps.

Tegretol XR has pretty much solved that crazy pain, but it's taken 3 months to get the dose right. I used hydrocodone until we got it right.
In my case, the TN is a result of MS, so I already had a neurologist. Given the trouble with your eye, I'd say seeing a neurologist would be prudent.
Good luck, and know that the fear subsides when the symptoms come under control.

Tegretol depletes Biotin, Calcium, Folic Acid and Vitamin D. Is anyone counseling you on the nutrients that you need to take to minimize other future problems?

I also started at the dentist many years ago with this pain and ended up having many teeth pulled(which I think happens to many TN patients) Of course it helped my pain I just don't have any molars. I have tried many of the antiseizure drugs and the ones that have worked best for me are Trileptal and Topamax. Have you seen a neurologist yet? Don't feel too frustrated if you have to see a couple. I had to see 2 to start out with because the first one told me there was nothing wrong with me. And please, know I'm NOT saying you have this but I ended up having MS because I have it on both sides of my face and I knew there was something wrong so I just kept pushing until I found the right neurologist. I know how hard it is to do this when you are hurt and scared. All I wanted to do was lay in my bedroom in the dark with a pillow over my head. But you are your own best advocate. I say this because I worked as a nurse for 16 years until this sidelined me. So I will be thinking of you. I also will respond if you have any other questions, feel free to email me. Michelle Remember you are not alone.

Wow Michellet, you're a nurse, you've seen it all: the explosion of disease in the last two decades, not regular diseases, but BAD diseases. So many more of us getting sick and with multiple problems! We spend more per person on health care than any other country in the world. You have seen it all!
Do you know where we rank in health outcomes? 37th! 37th IN THE WORLD! I'm not kidding. That is according the the World Health Organization of the U.N. WHY? Why now when we can have anything to eat that we could possibly want at any time of the year! Maybe that is the problem...Maybe more is not better, maybe more choices means less nutrition. Maybe MS today means that your cells are not communicating with each other so your immune cells are eating up the myelin sheath cells. 4 Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Physiology have been awarded in the area of cellular communication. Cell-surface glyconutrients are essential for this cellular communication. Ever hear of this? Most of us haven't! And guess what else? Those glyconutrients are no longer available in our multi-varied food supply. Without those monosaccharides (glyconutrients) one cell in your body cannot recognize another cell. In fact, cells cannot even identify a bacteria, a virus, a cancer cell, because THEY all have glyconutrients encoded on THEIR cell walls and if your cells do not have thenm then there is no recognition, no identification, no defense. Glyconutrients mean health, without them, there is no health.
We can continue the fight of individual diseases, each with its own diagnosis and its own drug or surgical procedure which causes other diseases and requires other surgical procedures. Or we can come down on the side of HEALTH...the body heals itself...and it does this best without the interference of pharmaceuticals all of which are TOXIC and have side effects. Do you know the term LD50%? LD50% is the lethal dose level at which a drug kills 50% of the lab animals. All drugs have this level; that is the definition of Drug. Without this level, the substance is considered a food (more on that later). Drugs are toxic: Researchers take the LD50% dose and back it down until they find a dose which will have the desired effect you want without killing you. Unfortunately, many drugs cause liver damage because your liver must detoxify the body of that dangerous drug/poison. Eventually the liver gives out.
What is the alternative? Look at what you eat. Do you eat 9-12 helpings of fruits and veges in a day? Do you eat the least processed foods that you can? Do you avoid harmful additives such as aspartame, synthetic sweetners, etc? Even if you do those things...your body still has to work overtime using up its emergency supply of glyconutrIents because YOUR FOOD IS DEVOID OF THESE ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS.
These nutrients were not discovered until the food processing industry had already adopted practices which eliminated them. It would be nice to get them in our food, but we cannot, we must supplement them. I wonder what health looks like?
Glyconutrients were given the LD50% test and failed it...THERE WAS NO LETHAL DOSE: Lab animals given larger and larger doses got healthier and healthier.
Glyconutrients were classified as food. The missing food! The reason why in the last 2 decades we are sicker and sicker?

Look at what you are eating...you may be able to take responsibility for your own health! good luck!