How to distinguish trigeminal neuralgia from migraine

  Trigeminal neuralgia is a paroxysmal, recurrent, severe pain in the trigeminal nerve distribution area, which occurs in middle-aged women, mostly unilaterally. The nature of the pain is short-lived electric shock-like, knife-like or tearing pain, with sudden onset and stop, and each attack lasts for a few seconds or tens of seconds, usually less than two minutes. The pain is most pronounced in the cheeks, upper and lower jaws and tongue.  There are trigger points, and light touch on the nose, cheek and tongue can induce pain. It can also be induced when washing the face, brushing the teeth, chewing, yawning and talking. So much so that patients are afraid to wash their faces and eat, and show emaciated and depressed faces. Trigeminal neuralgia attacks are frequent, and in severe cases, painful facial twitches may occur.  Migraine is a recurrent throbbing headache on one or both sides. More than 2/3 of migraineurs are women, and most patients have a family history of migraine. The frequency of attacks varies from one to several times per week to per year, and occasional cases of persistent attacks are seen.  The most common aura is visual aura, such as visual field defects, dark spots, and flashes of light. 10% of patients have visual aura or other aura, and the aura lasts for several minutes to an hour before entering the headache phase, which can be pulsating headache, or full headache, unilateral or bilateral frontal headache. The headache is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, photophobia, phonophobia, irritability, odor terror, and fatigue, etc. Most headache attacks last from 2 hours to 1 day. Fatigue, lethargy, weakness and poor appetite are often present after the headache subsides and can improve in 1-2 days.  The treatment of migraine is comprehensive, including general and specialized treatment. For trigeminal neuralgia, the safe and thorough treatment method is agreed to be microvascular decompression at home and abroad.