Trigeminal Neuralgia (a neuropathic condition) is a chronic pain condition that originates in the trigeminal, or 5th, cranial nerve. Trigeminal Neuralgia can cause sudden, extreme, burning or shocking, facial pain (usually in the jaw or lower face, but sometimes in the area around the nose or above the eye), which can last between 1 second and 2 minutes.This pain may recur successively for the next two hours. Attacks may progressively get worse over time, resulting in fewer and fewer moments free from pain.

The pain from Trigeminal Neuralgia has been described as the most excruciating pain known to humanity. This pain, which annually affects 4.3 people per 100,000, is so extreme that it has led to suicide in more than a quarter of those suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Hope for those suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia

According to the Mayo Clinic, there are several different techniques that are used by the medical community to treat trigeminal neuralgia. These treatments range from an assortment of anticonvulsant medications, which may lose their effectiveness over time, muscle relaxers, and a long list of surgical treatments which may attempt to destroy the trigeminal nerve itself or the surrounding nerves, or which may attempt to move blood vessels which may be in contact with the trigeminal nerve.

However, it has been found that there is a noninvasive, highly successful alternative. Chiropractic care has been used successfully to treat trigeminal neuralgia.

Chiropractic care has been able to relive Trigeminal Neuralgia sufferers of pain

One case study describes a 68 year old woman who had been suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia pain for 7 1/2 years, following the surgical resection of a brain tumor. The patient tried many different treatments in an attempt to lessen the pain she was experiencing, these included a range of medications and physical therapies, but it seemed that the pain only continued to get worse.

Then she tried Chiropractic, and immediately began to feel some relief.

She reported a 50% improvement in pain within a day after chiropractic treatment. Over the next few months of care her pain fluctuated, and she now lives with significantly reduced pain.

Another woman had been suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia for about three years when she began looking into surgery to alleviate her pain. She did however decide to give chiropractic a try first and in 4 months she was pain free and off medication.

Why does Chiropractic work?

According to Upper cervical subluxation complex a review of the chiropractic and medical literature by Kirk Erikson, one study found that at least 75% of 24 patients with trigeminal neuralgia had symptoms triggered by flexing the head and neck.

Another study found that flexing the cervical spine elicited TN symptoms in 10 out of 40 patients.It was also noted that in 27 of these subjects, flexing the whole spinal column from a neutral posture evoked the condition.

A chiropractor will use a gentle adjustment technique to relieve the pressure on the trigeminal nerve.