Left side of face sensitive and painful, trigeminal neuralgia?

October 12, 2024 9:58 AM

I woke up this morning and the entirety of the left side of my face feel sensitive, my left eye hurts. It's very low level pain, more discomfort and sensitivity.

I feel like I've sometimes had this and it fades away after a few hours. But it's still happening , doesn't seem to be getting better.

I grind my teeth in the night, I'm wondering if bruxism is the cause.

Has anyone else experienced this? Praying it fades.

posted by Sunflower88 to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

This happened to Mr. Blah and the docs guessed it was either trigeminal neuralgia or shingles. It turned out to be shingles (with no rash). Go to the doc; no matter what it is, there is stuff that can help.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:10 AM on October 12

I was thinking either shingles or sinus pain but yep, go to the doctor.
posted by kimberussell at 10:33 AM on October 12

In my experience - my father had trigeminal neuralgia, and my mother had a diagnosis of it before being diagnosed with atypical facial pain - TN is not usually described as low-level pain, but as intense, shooting pains. The Wikipedia article describes this. I don't have another suggestion to offer, sorry.
posted by paduasoy at 10:59 AM on October 12

This could also be migraine, which does not always present as a headache. There are lots of interventions available for migraines, fortunately.
posted by corey flood at 11:07 AM on October 12

I'm an emergency physician

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) = unilateral, brief (from 1 second to 2 mins or so), extremely painful electric shock-like episodes

Your symptoms sound nothing like that
posted by BadgerDoctor at 11:23 AM on October 12

The type of pain you're experiencing, as well as its intermittent nature, sounds nearly identical to a long-term sinus infection I had (which was actually misdiagnosed for several years as atypical trigeminal neuralgia). Definitely see a doctor -- if it is a sinus infection, a course of antibiotics should do the trick.
posted by paper scissors sock at 1:20 PM on October 12

If it does turn out to be shingles, you will want to start taking the anti-viral medication as soon as possible. After a few days it doesn’t work, but if you take it early you may prevent a serious case.
posted by mai at 4:46 PM on October 12

Hi there! TN-having person here!

To my mind, there are two types of trigeminal neuralgia. The lightning strike type is type 1.

Type 2 is a more of a constant pain, often feeling like your face is burning.

I'll definitely agree that you need to see a doctor about this pain you're having.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 5:29 PM on October 12

Anything like this near your eye warrants a visit to the doctor or the ER.
posted by SillyShepherd at 6:37 PM on October 12

My experience of TN was as BadgerDoctor describes it. The pain was so intense that all I could do was scream. After several instances over a few days, my neighbors came over to see what the hell was going on, and took me to the ER.

Doesn't sound like what you have, but you should definitely get it checked out.
posted by trip and a half at 11:48 PM on October 12

Are you confident this isn't sinus pain? Is it your eyeball (not sinus) or you eye socket (potentially sinus)?
posted by DarlingBri at 6:35 AM on October 14