I’m a newbie to the site and to the whole world of MS, having only been diagnosed a couple of weeks ago. One of my first symptoms (11 months ago) prompting my first MRI scan was the left side of my face gradually going numb and tingly. This numbness followed the pattern of the top two branches of the trigeminal nerve. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been getting twinges in my left jaw, radiating into my ear, upper and lower jaw. It comes and goes, but is gradually getting more persistent. It’s not as far as a pain as such but starting to get uncomfortable. I was hoping it was just a side effect of a cold/virus but I am terrified that this is a precursor to trigeminal neuralgia… I know no-one can give me definite answers and I doubt anyone can reassure me all that much, but has anyone ever had similar symptoms or issues around their trigeminal nerve without going on to develop full blown TN please? Clutching at straws for any potential comfort going please (or advice, if any).
hi blobfish give your ms nurse a call and ask for advice. i’ve been having scary nerve type pain in my upper lip area for a couple of days. have an appointment to see my ms nurse in december so it will probably be best to wait. it feels like a wasp sting and goes away once i’ve held it. neuralgia is awful, i only had it once, years ago, before my diagnosis. hope neither of us have it. carole x
I don’t have an MS nurse (yet?), so have made an appointment with the GP. I can’t help feeling having someone to contact would be a good thing, though. It’s all so very variable and hard to anticipate - easy to start getting paranoid, but on the other hand, it does feel like a realistic possibility, which makes it hard to relax about the thing.
I have trigeminal neuralgia but also TMJ. Waiting to see a neurologist about my TN and maybe having ms.
My TN started with electric shock stabbing pains in my ear/face/head. It is extremely painful. It comes and goes, although that’s the typical type and unfortunately I have the atypical type. The TMJ is a constant pain as I also have arthritis in both jaw joints. You would know it if you had TN. The pain explodes from nowhere. I had an MRI which showed it.
Hopefully you can find out what you are suffering from soon.
Thanks Ang. Sorry to hear about your situation, and hope your neurologist is able to rule out MS. My facial symptoms are currently very mild, so I appreciate it’s definitely not TN at the moment, thankfully. I shall take some comfort or possible reassurance from the fact that TN usually comes on suddenly, as you’re describing, so who knows - perhaps I will continue to have milder symptoms (even if the trigeminal nerve is involved in some way) rather than full on neuralgia. My other MS symptoms are burning sensations in my arm and hand and those are quite full on at the moment too, so I think perhaps stress and a cold are just making everything seem worse.