Women and Trigeminal Neuralgia

Imagine feeling a pain in your face that is so bad, you can't talk, you can't move - all you can do is wait for the excruciating pain to pass.

Alma Polk of Capitol Heights has been dealing with trigeminal neuralgia (TN) for five years, and it has been a roller coaster ride to get it under control.

"It was just like a jackhammer in my face, just jabbing. So, I laid down. I had to lay there for three days without being able to eat or drink," Polk said.

When Polk first started feeling the intense pain in her face, she thought it was dental related.

"They didn't see anything on my X-rays or anything like that, so I told him, 'You've got to pull this tooth.' It was just one that was really hurting. They told me it was a good tooth, don't pull it," she said.

Polk was diagnosed with TN and was connected with board certified neurosurgeon Jon I. McIver, M.D., with The Minimally Invasive Brain and Spine Center at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland

"There's really no reason a person has it or doesn't have it. It's associated with a blood vessel compressing the trigeminal nerve once it leaves the brain stem," Dr. McIver said.

According to Dr. McIver, any little thing can set it off, including "spray from the shower, it can be brushing your teeth, it can be talking, it can be eating, it could be washing your face with a washcloth, it could be wind."

They're all triggers that set off an unimaginable pain that McIver explained usually manifests on a person's right side and in three areas. Most commonly, like for Polk, it can be felt in the jaw, but it can also be across the ear to nose, or less commonly, in the forehead or eye areas.

"Sometimes, I would even take my fist and just bang on my jaw, trying to ease the pain," Polk said.

Dr. McIver noted that he does see TN more often in women than in men, and usually in people over the age of 50.

While medication has helped Polk, at one point, the pain returned, even with the medication.

For some people, surgery may be a solution, like microvascular decompression. During this procedure, Dr. McIver displaces the vessel that's compressing the nerve and cushions the vessel with what looks like a cotton ball. He said the procedure has an 80% cure rate.

Polk mentioned that she will consider other options to fix the pain down the road, if it returns.

View Mercy neurosurgeon Dr. Jon McIver's interview regarding trigeminal neuralgia and its treatment.