No Time for Facial Pain

Caring for two grandchildren, Carla had no time for the debilitating pain of trigeminal neuralgia. Like many suffering from ‘TN,’ she thought her condition was dental and even had two teeth extracted. Yet the pain persisted.

While hospitalized after a severe car accident, an MRI revealed that Carla had Multiple Sclerosis. Her team of doctors also diagnosed the cause of her facial pain:  trigeminal neuralgia. Her neurologist prescribed medication. As her pain persisted and worsened, the dosage was increased until eventually, the medication was no longer effective.

“I couldn’t brush my teeth on the right side of my face,” Carla said.

Carla described the pain of TN as a sharp and stabbing electrical current, even set off by forming the letters ‘b,’ ‘p’ or ‘m.’

“You never knew when the pain would hit you,” she said. “You could be in the middle of a conversation and it would hit you and you suddenly could not talk anymore because it was too painful.”

Carla learned about Gamma Knife for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. “It was a relief to know they had something to stop that pain,” she said. “It wasn’t like a literal surgery where you were going under the knife. I definitely knew it was something I wanted to do.”

It took time, but four months after single-session Gamma Knife treatment, Carla is relieved to be free of the pain of TN. She said, “If anybody’s facing trigeminal neuralgia, I would recommend this. First of all, please know what you’re feeling is not your teeth. Cause I was pulling teeth.

I’m just glad it’s gone. I’m happy.”