Trigeminal neuralgia is a common neurological disorder of the brain, which is highly prevalent in the middle-aged and elderly population. The occurrence of repeated paroxysmal severe pain in the face will have a great impact on the patient’s physical and mental health, as well as work life. However, because people do not know much about trigeminal neuralgia, it is easy to mistake it for toothache or migraine at the early stage of the disease and delay the treatment. So how to diagnose trigeminal neuralgia? 1.Age: Age is mostly above 40 years old, with middle and old people being the most common. 2. Pain site: the trigeminal nerve is symmetrically distributed on the left and right sides of the face, and usually the onset of pain is more on one side. The trigeminal nerve has three nerve branches, namely the ophthalmic branch, maxillary branch and mandibular branch, and the onset of the disease is mostly spread to one or more branches of the trigeminal nerve from a certain point, with the second and third branches being the most common, and the first branch is rare. The pain does not extend beyond the midline of the face and does not exceed the distribution area of the trigeminal nerve. Bilateral trigeminal neuralgia is rare. 3. Nature of pain: severe pain, such as cutting, stabbing, tearing, burning or electric shock-like severe pain, and even unbearable pain. 4.Pain pattern: The attacks of trigeminal neuralgia are often without warning, and each pain attack lasts for several seconds or minutes and stops abruptly. At the beginning, the number of attacks is small and the interval is long, and there is no discomfort during the interval. With the development of the disease, the attacks are gradually more frequent, the interval is gradually shortened, and the pain is gradually increased and intense, and the pain attacks are reduced at night. 5, trigger point: trigger point is also called “trigger point”, often located in the upper lip, nose, gums, corners of the mouth, tongue, eyebrows and other places. Light touch or stimulation of the trigger point can trigger a painful attack. Therefore, it can be triggered by talking, eating, washing face, brushing teeth, or even walking in the breeze. 6. Neurological examination: there are no abnormal signs, and a few have facial hyperalgesia. There are primary and secondary trigeminal neuralgia according to the etiology, further medical history should be inquired, and comprehensive neurological examination should be conducted, and if necessary, cranial CT, MRI and other examinations should be checked to help differentiate from secondary trigeminal neuralgia. 7, drug effect: trigeminal neuralgia generally take carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine drugs, pain relief effect is obvious, a few patients can not tolerate the side effects of drugs, serious patients fear that the effect is worse. These can help patients to make preliminary judgments about trigeminal neuralgia, and confirm the diagnosis by going to the neurology department of the hospital. After the diagnosis, active treatment, whether by medication or surgery, can effectively treat trigeminal neuralgia and enable patients to lead a normal life.