1.Q: What is facial muscle spasm and trigeminal neuralgia? A: Facial muscle spasm, also known as facial muscle twitching, is a paroxysmal, rhythmic jerk, spasm or tonic attack of one side of the facial muscles resulting in involuntary throbbing of the facial muscles. It starts from the eye muscles and gradually expands downward, spreading to the mouth and lips and facial expression muscles, which can lead to facial deformation in severe patients and seriously affect daily work and life. Trigeminal neuralgia is a paroxysmal, transient and severe pain in the face, with each attack lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes. The pain is electric, pins and needles, knife-cutting and tearing. The pain is unbearable and tormenting to the patient when it is severe. 2.Q: What are the clinical manifestations of facial muscle spasm and trigeminal neuralgia? A: Facial myospasm mostly develops after middle age, and is more common in women. It starts with intermittent twitching and jumping of the eye muscles, gradually spreading to other muscles on one side of the face, and the degree of jumping varies, and can be aggravated by fatigue, mental tension and voluntary movement, but cannot be imitated or controlled by itself. Zhao Si in “Country Love Story” is a typical manifestation of facial muscle spasm. The typical manifestation of trigeminal neuralgia is facial pain, which is paroxysmal, brief and intense, such as electric burning, pins and needles, knife cutting, tearing-like, with intervals of pain like normal people, with fewer times in the early stage of onset and long intervals, and then gradually aggravated, with attacks becoming more frequent, or even one attack in several minutes. There are often trigger points on the face of the patient, such as upper and lower lips, nose, corners of the mouth, incisors, canines, roots of teeth, cheeks, tongue, etc., which can cause painful episodes with a slight touch, and can also be triggered by drinking, brushing teeth, washing face and shaving, etc. Patients often dare not eat, speak loudly, or even wash their faces. 3.Q: How are facial muscle spasm and trigeminal neuralgia caused? A: Facial muscle spasm and trigeminal neuralgia are both caused by long-term vascular compression of the nerve root out of the brainstem section, because the sheath membrane wrapped around the section of the nerve itself is relatively weak and sensitive to compression stimulation, and long-term vascular compression causes destruction of the protective membrane on the surface of the nerve, exposing the nerve, forming a short circuit, generating abnormal signals and causing facial muscle twitching or facial pain. It is as if the wire skin falls off after the aging of the wire and the copper wire inside the wire is exposed to form a short circuit. 4.Q: Can facial muscle spasm and trigeminal neuralgia be treated and how can they be treated? A: In the past, facial muscle spasm and trigeminal neuralgia were often treated with drugs (such as carbamazepine, phenytoin sodium), botulinum toxin injection, Chinese acupuncture, radiofrequency, etc., but they were often ineffective, with low efficiency and easy to recur. At present, the most effective method is recognized as microvascular decompression, through a small incision behind the ear to open a dollar coin-sized bone window, microscopically the blood vessels compressing the facial nerve or trigeminal nerve root with special spacers to open, so that the blood vessels away from the nerve, no longer cause pulsatile compression, so as to completely remove the cause of the disease and achieve the purpose of cure. 5.Q: What is the efficiency of surgical treatment and is it easy to recur? A: The efficiency of microvascular decompression for facial spasm is 98%, and the efficiency for trigeminal neuralgia is 80-90%, with good surgical efficacy, few postoperative complications and low recurrence rate. 6.Q: Is the surgery risky and safe? A: At present, microvascular decompression is the most effective treatment for facial spasm and trigeminal neuralgia, and the surgical risk is very small and very safe under the existing medical conditions.