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We split trigeminal neuralgia into two types. There’s TN type 1 and there’s TN type 2. They’re vastly different. In TN type 1, patients experience this shock-like pain, but in between the episodes of pain, they are pain-free. The shock-like pain might last for seconds, maybe a few minutes – rarely longer than that, but the important thing is: in between the pain episodes, the patient is completely free of pain. In trigeminal neuralgia type 2, the situation is completely different. The pain on the face is more like a dull aching pain and the other thing is: it doesn’t seem to go away. Maybe it gets better at times, maybe it gets worse at times, but it doesn’t go away. That’s how you can tell the difference clinically between trigeminal neuralgia type 1 and type 2. The reason it’s so important is the treatments are so vastly different between the two types of trigeminal neuralgia.
