Does facial pain mean trigeminal neuralgia? That’s not necessarily true. Many diseases can cause pain in the face. The diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia is mainly based on symptomatic manifestations rather than MRI or other auxiliary examination methods. Therefore, if patients understand the clinical features of trigeminal neuralgia, they can correctly diagnose the disease without misdiagnosis and thus, treat it correctly. Domestic statistics show that the incidence of trigeminal neuralgia is 52.2/100,000, slightly more in women than in men, and the incidence can increase with age. About the site of pain The pain starts from a point of the face, mouth or jaw and spreads to one or more branches of the trigeminal nerve, with the second and third branches being the most common and the first branch being rare. The pain is more frequent on the right side than on the left side, and the pain does not extend beyond the midline of the face or beyond the trigeminal nerve distribution area. The pain is usually unilateral and focal, and occasionally bilateral trigeminal neuralgia occurs in 3% of cases. The nature of the pain is such as cutting, stabbing, tearing, burning or electric shock-like pain, and the pain is unbearable during the attack. Trigeminal neuralgia attacks are often unpredictable, while pain attacks are generally regular. Each pain attack lasts from a few seconds to 1 to 2 minutes and stops abruptly. At the beginning of the disease, the number of attacks is small and the interval is long, ranging from several minutes to several hours, but as the disease develops, the attacks become more frequent, the interval is shortened, and the pain becomes more severe. The pain attacks decrease at night. There is no discomfort during the interval. The pain attacks can be triggered by talking, eating, washing, shaving, brushing teeth and blowing cold wind, etc. The patient is depressed, cautious and even afraid to wash face, brush teeth, eat and speak carefully for fear of causing attacks. Trigger points Trigger points, also known as “trigger points”, are often located on the upper lip, nose, gums, corners of the mouth, tongue, eyebrows and other places. Light touch or stimulation of trigger points can stimulate pain, expressions and facial changes during seizures often suddenly stop talking, eating and other activities, painful side spasms may appear, that is, “painful spasms”, facial expressions are abnormally painful, but also tears and salivation. The facial expression may be abnormally painful and may be lacrimation and salivation. The expression may be nervous and anxious. There are no abnormal signs when the pain does not flare up, and a few have facial hypesthesia. About auxiliary examination Magnetic resonance examination can exclude secondary trigeminal neuralgia, such as tumor compression of trigeminal nerve. Magnetic resonance 3DTOF image can detect small blood vessels compressing the trigeminal nerve.