My pain started as one stabbing pain like an electrical shock one morning when I was eating breakfast. The pain was on the lower left. Over the next few days I would get an occasional jolt when eating. Then came an evening when I started having multiple stabs like a flickering light. (I realize now that it was moving air from the AC that caused it.) My dentist was sure it wasn't tooth related (turns out he knew nothing about TN and wasn't interested in learning, but at least he was right about it not being a tooth problem). My internist sent me for an MRI which showed nothing (that was back in the 90s). Before he put me on Tegretol one night I got solid excruciating pain. I went to the emergency room, got a shot of Demerol (after waiting in pain for 90 minutes) and got some relief but by morning the intense pain was back. I started on Tegretol the next morning. I would get almost immediate relief, but by evening it would wear off and instantly the solid pain would be back so bad that I couldn't even finish what I was doing, I just had to go to bed and breathe deeply and amazingly I could sleep. After increasing the meds till I was pain free and increasing the daily dose whenever the pain would come back I never had the solid pain again. I used Tegretol for the pain and when I could no longer increase the dose, I would have surgery. 7 years ago I had a MVD and have been pain free since then. The main triggers for me were talking and eating and a breeze occasionally.

Tegretol is an anti convulsant medication and the fact that it took away the pain was what confirmed the diagnosis.

I know others here have had different kinds of pain, but that was my experience. I hope you find some solutions. Living in pain is so hard.