Neuralgia is nerve related pain & its one of the most severe kinds of pain that a person can experience.
The pain is of a typical nature & can be best described by the following terms :
- Sharp / Shooting
- Triggered by certain activities
- Short lived
- Generally unilateral ( involves one side of the face)
In the Maxillofacial The predominant
neuralgia that is seen is Trigeminal Neuralgia involving either of the three branches of the trigeminal nerve.
Treatment is again Medicinal or Surgical.
There is a body generated tolerance to the medicines thereby meaning that a drug that ensures relief from pain today may only do so tomorrow in a higher dose.
Surgery also has its attending side effects, the procedure for these conditions may involve nerve avulsion by way of which the entire nerve that is affected is removed. This results in a pain free state but also causes a total loss of sensation in that region. The surgical procedure as such is a minor one generally done under Local
Anesthesia.
The goal of a number of surgical procedures is to either damage or destroy the part of the trigeminal nerve that's the source of the pain. Because the success of these procedures depends on damaging the nerve, facial numbness of varying degree is a common side effect.
These procedures involve:
• Alcohol injection
• Glycerol injection
• Balloon compression.
• Electric current
• Microvascular decompression (MVD)
• Severing the nerve
• Radiation
top
Neuralgias procedures