Hi!

In February, I was treated for an earache - I was complaining about a lot of pain in my jaw going towards the ear and went to an Urgent Care Center - since I'm new to the area.

The PA I saw said ear infection - gave me an antibiotic and ear drops, some pain meds, and sent me on my way. I don't like taking pain meds - but I took a few and they didn't seem to do anything.

I saw a dentist that same week, because I thought there had to be something wrong with my teeth with as bad of pain as I was having. He poked and prodded, took xrays, pulled and squeezed and couldn't find a thing wrong, said it was most likely related to the ear infection. After 5 days, it wasn't getting any better and I went back to the urgent care center.

I saw a different PA and she said that it was an ear infection, changed the antibiotic and sent me on my way. She also gave me a steroid shot while I was there. Soon after, the pain went away and life was normal again.

In May, all of a sudden, almost overnight, I had such excruciating pain in my lower jaw. I took 3 different types of pain pills, but nothing helped. I had taken enough that I should have been knocked out, but the pain was so bad for 24 hours that I couldn't fall asleep at all.

I went back to a different dentist the next day and, as like before, could not find a thing wrong with my teeth and said I should see a pain specialist.

I went to my regular PCP and she said it was TN, by the way I was describing and she sent me to an ENT to make sure there was no residual ear infection left. He found nothing wrong, said, in fact that it was TN the whole time.

After and MRI - in which the findings said I may have Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis with possible blockage, and an MRV to make sure everything was fine, my neurologist put me on Trileptal. For the first 3 weeks, the pain was gone, which is good, because it was usually constant pain with some excruciating pangs added in.

I questioned on whether or not it might be some sort of underlying tooth situation and she said - pain pills did nothing for the pain, if it were a toothache, it would have helped, and the Trileptal is working, if it were a toothache, it wouldn't affect the pain at all.

So the situation I'm in now, that I would love to have some advice on from someone that's been through this longer than I have....

After 3 weeks pain free, the whole left side of my jaw is hurting, almost constantly. Brushing my teeth, chewing, putting my teeth together - it all hurts, it's like the pressure causes an ache. It feels like my teeth don't want to fit together right now. A few times previously, it feels like that for a few days, then it all goes back to normal. Is that normal for TN? Is it just the nerves getting screwed up in the jaw and making the teeth hurt? Anyone ever have this before?

Any advice would be appreciated.