Why do older adults get trigeminal nerve pain?

  Trigeminal neuralgia is a relatively common clinical disease, mainly manifested as paroxysmal severe pain in the distribution area of the trigeminal nerve on one side of the face. The nature of the pain is like knife, needle, burning, lightning, with sudden onset and stop, and the length of pain varies from a few seconds to several minutes or even ten minutes, which is very painful for patients.  According to clinical statistics, trigeminal neuralgia mostly occurs in middle-aged and elderly people, and the incidence can increase with age. So why do elderly people have trigeminal neuralgia? Medical research shows that the main cause of trigeminal neuralgia is the compression of the trigeminal nerve root by the surrounding blood vessels. And all indications are that the middle-aged and elderly population is more prone to this abnormal compression between the blood vessels and nerves. The aging of blood vessels in the middle-aged and elderly population, coupled with the fact that some people suffer from hypertension, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and other underlying diseases, can easily lead to atherosclerosis, so that the blood vessels become thicker and stiffer, and even have abnormalities in their travel and displacement. As a result, the blood vessels around the trigeminal nerve root can easily compress the nerve, causing demyelination of the nerve and disturbance of nerve signal transmission, resulting in severe pain in the trigeminal nerve distribution area of the face. Understanding this cause of trigeminal neuralgia, there is a clear focus for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia, and that is to try to relieve this abnormal vascular nerve compression.  The standard treatment for trigeminal neuralgia is now recognized by the medical community as microvascular decompression. Microvascular decompression is based on the cause of trigeminal neuralgia, a 3~5 cm incision is made behind the ear, the vascular-neural anatomy around the root of the trigeminal nerve is carefully investigated through surgical methods, the responsible vessel for the compression of the nerve is found and the compression is released, a suitable sized spacer is applied for isolation to prevent further compression, protect the trigeminal nerve, restore the nerve function, and thus cure the disease. The effect is remarkable and definite