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Prolotherapy:
A great alternative
treatment
for trigeminal neuralgia symptoms
Ross Hauser,
M.D.
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), also known as tic douloureux, is a pain
syndrome recognizable by the patient's history alone. The condition is
characterized by pain often accompanied by a brief facial spasm or tic.
Pain distribution is unilateral and follows the sensory distribution of
cranial nerve V, typically radiating to the maxillary (V2) or mandibular
(V3) area. At times, both distributions are affected. Physical
examination eliminates alternative diagnoses. Signs of cranial nerve
dysfunction or other neurologic abnormality exclude the diagnosis of
idiopathic TN and suggest that pain may be secondary to a structural
lesion. The above information is from
www.emedicine.com.
If you are reading this short Prolotherapy article, it is probably
because you or someone you love has been diagnosed with Trigeminal
Neuralgia and is still having a terrible pain problem despite getting
treatment. As you know from your personal experience or via research on
the internet, no one knows the cause, yet many people have theories of
why it occurs, but no one really knows. Since no one knows the cause and
no one knows exactly why it occurs or what causes it to reoccur,
treatment options are many. People try
pain medications,
nerve blocks,
manipulation, physiotherapy, and some resort to dental appliances
and some even to surgery. Most are left with continued pain. So what are
they to do?
I am glad you asked this question. One of the first patients I saw with
Dr. Gustav Hemwall (my
Prolotherapy
mentor and teacher) was someone with tic douloruex (trigeminal
neuralgia) and he said you need to give Prolotherapy here (he pointed to
a place on the back of the head). He
injected
this area and soon the person was well. Well, I have done that exact
same shot or should I say shots on people and sometimes they get well
and sometimes they don’t. But more often than not, Prolotherapy works
great for trigeminal neuralgia symptoms. So one may ask, “how?” or “why
does it work?”
If you read the book
Prolo Your Pain
Away!, you will see the
referral pattern of ligaments. The ligaments (actually
muscles and tendons also) in the suboccipital region (back of head)
refer pain to the face. The referral pain can be significant! It can
simulate the pain of trigeminal neuralgia. For a person who has been
diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia and has
neck pain,
then Prolotherapy should most likely be the first treatment tried. If
the person is tender in the neck or back of the head to manual
palpation, then there is a good chance that Prolotherapy will be the
treatment that finally gets rid of their trigeminal neuralgia pain.
Trigeminal neuralgia pain is typically on one side and very, very
significant. Sometimes the
TMJ
needs to be treated and sometimes I do
nerve blocks
into the trigeminal nerve. More often then not I tell the person you
have the symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia but your diagnosis is
ligament laxity
in the neck (or TMJ). Once the TMJ or neck ligaments are tightened with
Prolotherapy, the facial pain remits. Most folks come every 3 to 4 weeks
and receive four to seven visits.
So what causes trigeminal neuralgia symptoms? I would say that often it
is ligament laxity in the neck. This most likely causes an irritation of
some autonomic nerves in the neck. These autonomic nerves (stellate
ganglion etc.) then cause the severe lancinating pain that these
patients often experience. Once the ligament laxity has been relieved,
so is the autonomic nerve irritation. The net result is a wonderful
happy person. Now shouldn’t that always be the goal of pain therapy?
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The Journal of Prolotherapy
is unique in that it has a
target audience of both physicians and patients. The purpose of this
journal is to provide the readers with new cutting-edge information
on Prolotherapy, as well as provide a forum for physicians and
patients alike to tell their stories.
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