Many people have face pain in their lives and suspect it is trigeminal neuralgia, so what is this face pain and is it trigeminal neuralgia or not? Can trigeminal neuralgia cause facial pain? First of all, the trigeminal nerve is the largest nerve in the human face, and it is mainly responsible for the pain, touch and muscle movement of the human face. For example, when the wind blows, the face feels cold, which is the sensation of the trigeminal nerve. We bite something very powerful, this is the role of the trigeminal nerve motor innervated muscles. Secondly, there are many causes of trigeminal neuralgia, generally speaking, they are divided into two aspects: one is that the trigeminal nerve is compressed by blood vessels in the cranium, and as the blood vessels expand and beat against the trigeminal nerve, it causes trigeminal pain. Another reason is that the trigeminal nerve has a very thick ganglion in the skull. This ganglion is called the trigeminal hemimelia, and small tumors growing in the ganglion, or ischemia or viral infection in the ganglion, can cause trigeminal neuralgia. Finally, trigeminal neuralgia is often mistaken for “facial pain” or “toothache”. It is a kind of severe neuralgia that occurs in the distribution area of the trigeminal nerve in the face with recurrent attacks. Phoenix TCM experts say that trigeminal neuralgia is one of the common diseases in neurosurgery and neurology. Most trigeminal neuralgia starts at the age of 40, mostly occurs in middle-aged and elderly people, especially in women, and its onset is more on the right side than on the left side. The disease is characterized by sudden onset, stopping, lightning-like, cutting, burning, intractable and severe pain in the trigeminal nerve distribution area of the head and face. What are the symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia? The typical symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia are: 1. When a patient has an attack of pain, it is usually what is foreshadowed, it may just appear suddenly, and the pain will be suddenly found to be lightning-like and short-lived. The nature of the pain is varied, it can be like, electric burning, knife cutting or needle stabbing, etc. 2. The duration of each pain attack may vary, from a few seconds to a minute or two, and then it stops abruptly. Some patients have attacks related to the climate, generally more attacks in winter and spring. In patients with trigeminal neuralgia, the attacks may be cyclical, and the attacks may last for a period of weeks or months, and generally rarely heal on their own. The intermittent period is painless and can recur after a period of time. At the beginning of the attack, the number of attacks is less, and the interval is longer, but the condition is gradually aggravated, and later the pain attacks become more and more painful, and the interval is shorter and shorter, so that the pain does not last all day. 4, pain in the attack, the patient is very painful, will also have some painful expression, often found patients with the palm of the hand or towel tightly rub the side of the disease, in order to reduce pain, some attacks constantly chewing action, the attack is often accompanied by facial muscle reflexive twitch, the corners of the mouth to the side, and facial redness, eye conjunctiva congestion, tearing, salivation and other symptoms. The pain initially starts from one branch of the trigeminal nerve and then gradually expands, such as when the pain starts from the infraorbital nerve, it spreads to the lower eye, nose and upper lip; when it starts from the second branch of the trigeminal nerve, it spreads to the lower face, lower lip and forehead; when it starts from the supraorbital nerve, it spreads to the ipsilateral forehead and upper lip. In a few cases, the pain spreads to the three branches of the trigeminal nerve, and sometimes even to the opposite side. What are the key points for the diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia? 1. The pain site of the patient should be in the facial trigeminal nerve area or the distribution area of a branch of the facial trigeminal nerve. 2, Most of the pain is a paroxysmal severe pain, when the disease does not attack again will be completely painless, only a very small number of patients still have some mild pain. 3, the patient’s pain will have a trigger point, when the stimulation of these trigger points will cause the onset of pain, but when the pain has just passed, and then stimulate the “trigger point” will not cause pain. 4. More than 90% of trigeminal neuralgia patients suffer from one-sided pain. 5.The pain attack will be accompanied by nausea and vomiting from time to time.