For People with MS, here are Tips for Dealing with Trigeminal Neuralgia

Try These Things for a Little Relief

By Julie Stachowiak, Ph.D., About.com Guide

Updated: December 09, 2009

While I have never suffered from the bring-you-to-your-knees-in-agony pain from a full-force attack of trigeminal neuralgia (TN), I have had some small “mini-TN” episodes that are enough to let me know that this must be terrible for those experiencing TN attacks. Even my little twinges are enough to make me get very still and very quiet, usually staring straight ahead and blinking only when absolutely necessary. My sentences are reduced to meaningful looks or one-word responses to questions.

Unfortunately, as many of us know, relieving the pain from trigeminal neuralgia is a little more involved than taking an over-the-counter pain reliever. For many people, part of the frustration of TN is that there seems to be little to do to bring any relief at all. However, there are things that people have tried with varying success to alleviate some of their pain.

The idea behind many of these tips is to “scramble the signals” of the affected nerves so that they do something besides cause pain. Whether medically or scientifically sound or not, many people out there are finding some level of relief from these tips and none of them are harmful. While most people say that none of these techniques completely eliminate their discomfort, they do claim to experience a reduction in the pain. To me, this sounds better than nothing and worth a try.

Read about applying heat, cold, pressure and more, by clicking here.

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