Hi Rae,
Just found this site and one of the first things I read was your post by chance. I have ATN. (Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia) (or Atypical Facial Pain)You asked about that. I got diagnosed fairly quickly as well in the world of TN.(Trigeminal Neuralgia). Lucky me I guess. I am not a good candidate for surgery as ATN has a much lower success rate and higher risk rate than TN, because it's not a simple matter of a blood vessel and nerve bumping each other and starting problems. I have heard wonders of the MVD surgery (micro vascular decompression for anyone reading this) from another forum I am on so good luck to you on that, I hope you are one of the people for whom it is a life changing procedure.
You asked for someone with ATN to weigh in? Well, I'm not sure what you are asking exactly but I'll put in my two cents and see how it goes. My experience and knowledge of ATN vs TN is this: (And I get both). TN gives you more short, electric, ice pick stabs, with common triggers like cold, breeze, noise, stress, chewing , talking, etc etc. ATN is more of a constant pain, like a dull or boring pain, deep, lasts for hours, days even. Less electric but sometimes. Some numbness or tingling sometimes. But often accompanied by the sharp stabbing TN pains. Triggers can start the whole thing, same as TN, it just lasts longer. For me, ATN symptoms can respond some to pain meds like hydrocodone, percocet, which do not help with the TN stabs, but for me also, traditional meds like Tegretol don't touch the ATN component or not for long. Does that make sense? No one seems to have an answer for me WHY or WHAT causes ATN, whereas TN is a blood vessel malformation or compression on the TN nerve. Does that help at all?
Good luck with the MVD!