I’ve been diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia and I guess I must have it. But oddly enough it seems to lessen the pain and to some extent prevent the attacks I keep having daily. Iseem to have all the claisdic symptoms it just seems odd that chewing gum would help if the problem is up inside my brain. I was wondering if others have experienced this as well?
Oh yes–I never had the classic trigeminal neuralgia with shocks, I have constant dental pain, diagnosed as trigeminal neuropathic pain. But there was a long period of perhaps a year when I chewed gum all day long, everyday. Peppermint or hot cinnamon were the ones that worked the best, so I alternated. At one point my dog got ahold of a packet of sugarfree gum and just about died, so I switched to old-fashioned sugared gum.
I got so sick of chewing gum that I just finally quit and haven’t chewed since. Switched to either using toothpicks or wearing a mouth guard (which isn’t very attractive either). But it does seem to “distract the nerve” quite nicely for many people.
The theory with chewing gum is that a nerve can only “fire” so much. By chewing gum you’re forcing the nerve to fire, using up all the pain reaction by keeping the nerve fully engaged.
It definitely works for some kinds of TN!
Sorry about your TN.
Even though the problem may be in your brain, there may be certain things which help to relieve the pain. Chewing gum may be doing that for you. It does not do that for me.
Remember that TN pain can last a long time, or a very short time. Maybe the TN pain has gone by the time you start chewing.
I do not know, although I have had this horrible disorder for a long time.
Doctors sometimes do not understand it either.
I just wish you pain-free days.
Thanks for the replies guys it is good to hear others experiences. Especially where it is such an uncommon condition.
Chewing gum works for me, too.
Yes that is strange because chewing most anything is really hard. Glad it seems to help you. The thing that seems to help a bit is drinking hot tea. Have a good day.