Amy, my heart goes out to you. I developed trigeminal neuralgia on both sides of my lower jaw (both left sided and right sided) in 1988 at the age of 39. None of the tegretols or neurontins worked for me. I had atypical pain the the left (a constant high burn) interdispersed with electric socks triggered by eating dringing air yawn tooth brushing. By 1993 I was about to blow my brains out. I did know, tho, in about 1992, that I did also have an autoimmune disease (like lupus) and osteonecrosis of the jaw bones (inflammation of the bone cells pressing on the trigeminal nerve). Knowing this, I still opted for a MVD done by Dr Janetta In Pittsburgh. I was so desperate. Unfortunately, it did not work. However, if you have no other health problems (as I did) at this time that might affect your success rate, I would go for it. The surgery is relatively safe now and does not take a great deal of time to recuperate from. This is a likely permanent fix foryou. Good Luck. Nancy