Will trigeminal neuralgia continue to get worse without surgery?

  Trigeminal neuralgia has the name of “the first pain in the world”, but there are still many trigeminal neuralgia patients who have the habit of procrastinating when seeking medical treatment, some hold the fluke mentality that the disease will heal itself, and some feel that trigeminal neuralgia is difficult to treat and simply boil. These mentality are not obtainable, primary trigeminal neuralgia cannot be cured by itself, as the disease progresses, the attacks of trigeminal neuralgia will become more and more frequent, and the patient will only get more and more painful.  Trigeminal neuralgia is a relatively complex neurological disease, which is usually accompanied by more obvious pain, and the location of the pain is mainly in the face, head and so on. However, it is often overlooked by patients because of its erratic and intermittent occurrence. Every year, there are few patients who delay treatment due to lack of awareness of the disease, resulting in an increase in the severity of the disease. While early medications are effective in controlling pain, they become less effective over time, and some patients still want to rely solely on medications to “delay” surgical treatment.  In daily life, patients often have insufficient knowledge about trigeminal neuralgia, which leads to delaying the best time for treatment. For example, some patients think that this disease is not similar to cancer or tumor, which must be removed or cured, and that since the pain is intermittent, it will be fine as long as they get over it, and as long as there are no serious problems and as long as it is not life-threatening, they think that it is unnecessary to spend such time without going to the hospital for consultation and trouble.  Furthermore, some patients believe in a part of the special drugs, thinking that this disease can be controlled and treated by taking drugs; attempting to solve the disease through drugs. In fact, drugs can only be used as one of the auxiliary treatments for trigeminal neuralgia, treating the symptoms but not the root cause, not as a long-term treatment, and some of the “special drugs” have unknown ingredients, so blindly taking them indiscriminately can lead to a series of side effects, which is not worth the loss. It is reported that the number of patients with delayed treatment due to over-reliance on drugs is increasing every year.  Microvascular decompression surgery is a new treatment option for trigeminal neuralgia. Microvascular decompression surgery is a known treatment method for trigeminal neuralgia with complete preservation of nerve function. Under general anesthesia, a surgical incision is made in the hairline behind the ear to relieve the pressure of the blood vessels on the nerve root, restore the normal function of the trigeminal nerve, and make the pain disappear. The procedure has the advantages of short time, less bleeding, fewer complications, less pain and quicker results. The whole operation is performed under a microscope.