Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group neurologic conditions

Hi,

This may be far fetched, but, does anyone know whether there is a conection between Ankylosing Spondylitis and Trigeminal Neuralgia? TN is a neurologic condition involving shock like pain to the facial area. In my case, the lower right jaw. Feels like I want to pull my teeth out when it happens. I had a root canal the first time, two years ago and dismissed the diagnosis, but now it is back again, so I am not so sure they were wrong. Now that I am told I have AS, I was just wondering if anyone knew of a connection before I go see about another root canal.

Linda

My wife does not have AS but does have Trigeminal Neuralgia. I do not think the two are related. Her's was caused by a blood vessel tented up against the fifth Cranial nerve. She went to dentist and a bunch of people before they finaly figuring out what was wrong. It is like getting hit in the jaw with a cattle prod. Her's invloved the right side of her face, lower half, from the eye down to the lower jaw. The pain comes from inside the head not from the face where it surfaces. Doctors operated on her eight years ago. Involved brain micro surgery to seperate the nerve from the blood vessel. She had been pain free for eight years now. Until recently when she has experience some twinges of the pain again. Possible the vessels are starting to tent up in a new area and wear out the sheild garding the nerve. It is not as sever as it once had been. I am truely greatful for the surgens in Denver that operated on her and gave her relief for the last eight years.

I have had Trigeminal Neuralgia and your right it does hurt big time. Mine used to throb with my heart beat and I used to have to take some big time pain killers to subdue the pain a bit.
I took a med (can't remember what , but it was a small red pill) to treat it and was told that if it didn't go away with the meds they could do an operation to cut out the nerve but that would leave a part of my face with no feeling in it. Fortunately for me it went away with the meds after about a year and a half. Just occassionally I will get a little bit of it, usually when my stress level is high.
Not sure if it is linked with AS or not and this is the first time I remember seeing someone else post about it on here.

Dan.

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We are kicking some AS*.

I thought I would add a little more. The medication my wife took for the first 5 years she had the condition was tegratol. This helped but after awhile it cesed to relive the pain. After being in pain for five years, she was then given three options other than medication. . One was to cut the nerve as mention which would cause the face to be numb. The second was to give a nerve block where they shoot wisky into the nerve deading it for three to six months. Also the face would be numb during that period and when the block wore off the pain would return the third was the option that I talked about before.

Thanks for the replies.

I tended to think they were not related, but just thought I would check. Good luck to you both!

Linda