I've been to the neurologist and she said that I did have Trigeminal Neuralgia. My general practitioner had put me on 300mg gabapentin 3x a day. That had made the shooting pain attacks go away, so the neurologist kept me on that medicine. She said that because I'm 27 and pretty young to have it, it would likely go away on its own, and wanted me to stay on the medication for 3 months and then go back to her and they'd try to slowly take me off the medicine and see if I was better.

That was about 1.5 months ago. 2 weeks ago, the gabapentin stopped working so well. I didn't have the pain attacks, but my jaw hurt constantly and was incredibly tender. To the point I gave up eating many meals halfway through. I went back to the neurologist and she upped my dose to 400mg 3x a day. But she still thought that it would go away on its own.

I did get an MRI done a few months ago, because before I had standard facial pain, I was getting migraines. We are pretty sure they were caused by the TN since as soon as I got the face pains they completely stopped, and I'd never had a migraine before then. The MRI was done without contrast, and I've heard that ones without contrast don't show small problems. The neurologist looked at the MRI and said she didn't see any problems. She said there are no tests that can be done besides the MRI.

I'm not sitting here thinking that I know more than a specialist doctor. But nothing I've read suggests that this normally resolves on its own, and she said that it would the majority of the time. I don't want to stay on the medicine too long because I'd like to start trying for a baby later this year. The medicine has pretty bad effects on a baby, but having terrible pain and anxiety of waiting for the attacks would also be bad for a baby. So I want to get this fixed.

Do you guys think I should find another neurologist? My mom does, but she's a nurse who gets very worried about me. I was referred to the ENT to see if there's a "structural problem," but after that, I don't think the neurologist has any ideas to do anything.

Well, any insight would help. Or if you know anyone who had this resolve on its own. I know people wouldn't still be on this site if it fixed itself, but maybe they told you before they left. Thanks!