Hi all. Through a lot of very painful self-testing recently I’ve found something strange. Whenever I put mild pressure on the area just beneath my chin - the muscles above the hyoid bone - I get excruciating burning pain just above my right upper lip. Along the nasolabial fold.
I remember that before all this hell started I would get very painful cramps in that area when I yawned. I haven’t had them since the chronic pain began.
I was thinking it was muscular, so started massaging that area. Initially there was some change and I thought I’d finally figured it out. But now all it does is aggravate it, and the pain is far too severe to be muscular, I think. The whole right side of my face feels as though it is going to explode and battery acid or something is going to pour out. Plus massaging around the hyoid area generally makes it much worse, not better.
Just wondering if this rings a bell for anyone and how this area can connect to the facial nerves. Haven’t been diagnosed with Eagles, or anything, yet, but every bit of info helps. Thanks.
Both the Trigeminal nerve and the facial nerves have branches in those areas , so how any one would tell which one was causing the pain I’m not sure! I have type 2 trigeminal neuralgia, caused by the pressure of the styloids and possibly other neck problems I think, I get toothache as well. I’ve put links to 2 sites with good images; there’s a branch of the facial nerve which goes down near the hyoid, so perhaps you’re aggravating that?
There are medications which help with nerve pain like low doses or anti-depressants and anti-convulsants- there’s info in the Newbies Guide so maybe you could try those and see if any help?
Thanks Jules, I’ve tried a lot of meds with little to no results, but the ENT today prescribed me tregletol and said I should trial that for six weeks. Not sure how I feel about that… I’d have thought localised anaesthetics would be the better approach to actually determine where the problem is.
I did manage to persuade them to get me the CT though. I’ll be reading those sites tomorrow in the waiting room.
Tegretol can work well for some people with nerve pain, so it’s worth a try. It’s good that they’ll get you a CT so that should show if there’s elongated styloids or calcified ligaments- but make sure that it’s requested to evaluate it for ES, to look at the length and angle of the styloid processes, and to look for any calcified ligaments. Then take it from there when you get the results! Hope that the tegretol works for you! The Ben’s Friends facial pain group is very informative too- you could have a look on there.
