Stress can cause many ailments. Stress is often accompanied by pain, such as lower back pain, shoulder pain and facial pain. Facial pain (in this case trigeminal neuralgia) consists of a sharp, often short lasting shooting pain in the face. That is very bad and can make you very anxious. But that actually reinforces another bout of facial pain. It is possible to treat this form of stress pain.
Pain in the face
Face is another word for your face or countenance. In other words, the front of the head. Your face includes your nose, forehead, cheeks, ears, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, chin and visible teeth. Facial pain means that you experience pain in the face. This can be on the skin side as well as in the jaw or ears. There are different types of facial pain. For example, it can be a symptom of an inflammation in the face (think of an inflamed root canal or earache) or a severe cold. Even freezing cold, teeth grinding or clenching the jaw can cause facial pain. The facial pain is often constant and disappears when the underlying cause is treated. In trigeminal neuralgia, the facial pain itself is the condition and that can only be remedied with a facial pain treatment. In this article we mainly discuss this form of facial pain.
Facial pain symptoms
Trigeminal neuralgia is a form of nerve pain in the face. It often occurs on one side of the face and manifests itself as a huge, intense shooting pain. You can feel this in the forehead, upper jaw, lower jaw, lips, nose and even your tongue. In addition to pain, a tingling sensation may develop. The pain can last for seconds to several minutes and then disappear as suddenly as it came on. It is not a migraine or cluster headache, as these forms of pain last longer.
Nerve pain
Facial pain caused by trigeminal neuralgia is all about the trigeminal nerve. This is the fifth cranial nerve and it gives you feeling in the face. Thanks to this nerve, you feel every caress on your face, the sensation of a kiss on your lips, the cold and the sun. This nerve branches into three branches, each branch performing its own tasks. Branch 1 takes care of the sensation in the forehead and eyes, branch 2 takes care of the sensation of the middle part of the face (cheeks, nose, upper jaw, sinuses and upper teeth) and branch 3 is about the chin, lower teeth, your tongue and lower jaw. The third branch also controls the muscles, so that you can chew, talk and the like. When the fifth cranial nerve becomes heavily overstimulated, it can cause complaints of nerve pain; the symptoms of facial pain. The facial nerve pain attack can be started by several triggers. Cold, for example, but also talking, chewing and swallowing or touching a specific part of the face can trigger the pain attack.
Stress as the culprit
Where does this facial pain and overstimulation of the fifth main nerve actually come from? Usually (emotional) stress is the cause of the overstimulation. For example, by continuously tensing certain muscles in the face or by clamping the jaws together. As a result, they become overloaded and so-called micro-cramps can arise. These micro-convulsions in turn ensure that the blood supply is briefly blocked and that no or hardly any oxygen is supplied. This irritates the nerves, causing the typical pain signals to be released.
Avoid stress
It is possible to prevent stress and work stress by paying close attention to the signals. Stress can be caused by a high workload. By saying “no” to certain tasks, you give yourself space to fulfill other tasks and reduce stress. If you experience stress in the work environment, it is good to talk about it with a confidential advisor. He or she can help you feel more comfortable at work.
Treatment of facial pain
With chronic pain you often want to resort to painkillers, but facial pain caused by prolonged exposure to emotional stress is better treated in a different way. This form of pain is a psychophysiological reaction to strong emotions. This means that a psychological form of stress has an effect on physical (physiological) pain complaints. By addressing the cause behind the shooting pains, the facial pain attacks will become less and less, because the nerves will no longer be overstimulated. You learn to deal with your emotions and eventually process them in order to go through life more stress-free.
Photo: Averie Woodard
