Welcome Andy,
I'm also fairly new to this site and to Trigeminal Neuralgia. Well, I guess I've had it for about 1½ years, but didn't have it diagnosed correctly till January of this year. My pain radiates out from the left cheek area and by early January it had become excruciating all the time. I was first put on carbamazepine 200mg by my family doctor, but after just a few days we knew it wasn't gonna work....very dizzy, drowziness, headaches, nausea. He then put me on Trileptal (oxcarbazepine 150mg...2x/day), but it had no effect at that time. We then went to Neurontin....same side effects as the carbamazepine. So about 6 weeks ago, we went back to the Trileptal and gradually it began to have an effect on the pain without any noticeable side effects. In fact, Easter morning was the first day in about 18 months that I've had no face pain. I even tried to make it hurt by being very aggressive in brushing my teeth....still no pain! And today I'm still pain-free. (Of course that's gonna change on Friday when I have my hernia surgery, but at least the pain won't be in my face...lol.)

I eventually did see a neurologist about my present TG about 4 weeks ago and he advised sticking with the Trileptal. I also just had a brain MRI this past Friday, but haven't heard anything on that.

I remember back in the early 90's I would get real sharp pains in my right temple area. It would literally drive me to my knees. They didn't last long and eventually went away, but I wonder if that may have also been TG.

Anyway, I hope you have good success with the carbamazepine and yes, I would definitely follow up with a doctor. I think they have to do periodic blood tests while you're on these meds to make sure they're not doing any damage to liver, etc... as I understand it.