Is TN diagnosed when you are having an MRI?
Is it possible that your MRI is just perfect and you are still having the pain???

Dear Anastasia,
Welcome to this forum. I hope that we can help. I had an MRI done by my neurologist, and he said that it was 'clean' - that it did not show a compression. He eventually referred me to a neurosurgeon anyway. When the neurosurgeon found out that I hadn't had a 'thin-slice' MRI, he immediately sent me for one and said that the neurologist should have done one. A 'thin slice' MRI is one that takes the 'slices' (pictures) much closer together - I think that a normal MRI is 32 slices, and a thin slice is 64. Anyway, the neurosurgeon DID find compressions on the 'thin slice' MRI - he said that the compression had been 'hiding' between the slices.
I hope that this helps, maybe they can refer you for one.
Welcome again!
Lily

Hello Lily!
well to be honest I don't know what a thin MRI means BUT I can understand what are you saying, because at the beggining I had an MRI that was clear, and then I had another one with more details to check the vessels as well * sorry don't know if this is the correct word in english* and we did that more in details MRI as well... and still I was perfect!!!!

Dear Anastasia,
I had no idea that english was your second language, you speak it so well! I have heard stories of other people who had clear MRI's, but clearly had TN Type 1. In some cases, the doctor will still recommend an MVD, and they will often find a vein when they actually get into the brain and look around. It is truly up to your neurosurgeon to make that call, after weighing all other alternatives.
Hope this helps,
Lily

thanks Lily

Absolutely!! I had two separate MRI's done and they all came back clean. I eventually had mvd surgery in 2006 and was diagnosed then atypical. When the neurosurgeon opened my head up he found a large artery lying beside the nerve and veins compressing. My surgery was a failure but I did learn at that time MRi's were not the gold standard for diagnosis.

The true purpose of the MRI is NOT to diagnose TN, but it is to rule out the possibility of the pain coming from a tumor or MS. After everything else is ruled out as being the cause of the pain, then the diagnosis can be made of TN.

I had two different thin cut MRI's done...at the beginning & a month ago before having my recent MVD surgery. Both MRI's came back normal, and I had been having typical TN pain for three years.

When I had the MVD surgery 11 days ago, a severe compression of the trigeminal nerve by the Superior Cranial Artery was found to be the problem. It was never seen on the two different MRI's.

Good luck to you on this new journey,

Judy