Mine started following prolonged dental procedure; I know that many sites about TN state that some mistakenly associate TN with a dental procedure. For me, though, the dentist injured the 5th cranial nerve (TN nerve) with a needle; he blew through the nerve.

The first effects I felt were numbness - the tip of my nose to be exact, which, at first, I thought was funny. After a week, it was no longer humorous to me. The left side of my mouth was also numb.

I've not had numbness that affected my tongue, however; I do have severe pain at times at the back part of my tongue and roof of my mouth (near my throat) but that's something else my doc told me. I'll look up what she stated that is (and post later).

My ears also have pain, only it's difficult for me to differentiate whether it's allergy related, occipital neuralgia or TN. My docs are better at making that determination.

Though I've not heard of TN having an onset with a virus, I wouldn't think it impossible. Maybe just rare or rarely heard of.