Question 98: My mother, who is 53 years old, started to have pain in her throat 4 months ago. The pain was especially bad in the afternoon and evening, accompanied by swelling of the whole right side of the face and inside the ear, and a thick tongue full of moss on the tongue, and the pain was unsettling all night. We went to Chinese medicine, internal medicine, dentistry, neurology, ear, nose and throat, and surgery. None of them could confirm the diagnosis: some said it was “fire”, some said it was “inflammation”, some said it was trigeminal neuralgia, and some doctors suspected a “tumor” in the brain or a “tumor” in the nasopharynx. Some doctors suspected a brain “tumor” or nasopharyngeal “tumor”, so they did CT and nasal endoscopy, and found nothing, but still recommended to go to a bigger hospital for examination! I have used intramuscular injections, drips, Chinese and Western anti-inflammatory drugs, all to no avail. What exactly did my mother have? Answer: After reading the medical history, I initially thought of two possible diseases: if we exclude the tumor in the brain, it may be trigeminal neuralgia and ear herpes zoster. This disease is related to the invasion of the nerves in the face and should be treated with anti-viral and anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving drugs, which are really tricky to treat because so far, there are no anti-viral drugs with definite efficacy in the medical field, but with persistent treatment, this disease can still be cured. Question 99: The right side of my mother’s face, including the ear, face, neck, throat and tongue (no tooth pain), has been in severe pain for more than 3 months. Most of them said the pain was caused by inflammation of the larynx, a dentist and a neurologist said it was trigeminal neuralgia, each said different things, but none of them had a cure. I have to ask you for advice. The pain seems to be wandering, with facial pain at one time and pain in the ear at another, but more of a sore throat, a lot of tongue moss on the tongue, and small blisters on the side of the tongue. Please give me a clear diagnosis and prescribe a good remedy for me. Answer: Most of them are shingles, caused by the herpes zoster virus invading the trigeminal nerve. Indeed, there are very few good antiviral drugs available, and in most cases, antibiotic plus hormone therapy is used to improve the symptoms only, and it takes quite some time before it gets better. In addition, simple trigeminal neuralgia can not be completely ruled out, can do closed treatment, solve a little pain, really can not, can do trigeminal neurectomy.