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1658667 tn?1310091382

Trembling lower jaw and pain in right side of face

Just a quick question- have any of you ever just had your lower jaw start trembling (like when you shiver really bad)? I was at the movies and all of the sudden my lower jaw just started shaking. i have been having a lot of pain in my right side of my face and into my ear. I thought it was TMJ, but the dentist wasn't so sure. It has been hurting for weeks...and now this trembling thing has happened.
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1658667 tn?1310091382
Jen- I don't think I have ever even heard of this. My original opthomologist sent me to a neuro-opthomologist who encouraged me to follow up with the 2nd neuro who dismissed me :D So maybe I can approach the neuro -opthomologist about this? Are they the ones who do this test?

Thanks Jen for the help!
Helpful - 0
338416 tn?1420045702
Have you ever had an optical coherence tomography test?  Sometimes when you don't have a lot of lesions, but you have a lot of symptoms, it indicates some atrophy of the white matter.  An OCT will show the doctor how much atrophy is visible in the retinal nerve fiber layer, which isn't hidden by myelin like the rest of our white matter.

I'll see if I can bump up my post on my test - it has some interesting pictures.
Helpful - 0
1658667 tn?1310091382
Thanks Bob that helps me to understand a lot :D !!
Helpful - 0
1453990 tn?1329231426
The number of lesions has very little to do with the symptoms.  It is like real estate: location, location, location.  Pontine  lesions can cause all kinds of head and neck issues. C-spine lesions can cause motor and sensory issues throughout the body.

My optic nerve "lesions" do not show on MRI, but the decreased size of the optic nerve and tract do.  The damage also shows up on VEP.  MRI is only part of the story.

Bob
Helpful - 0
1658667 tn?1310091382
Thanks Bob. I have a feeling that may be what is going on in my case. I just seem to have way too many symptoms for the small number of lesions. Apparently my dr. does too since he dismissed me from having any kind of neurological disease.
Helpful - 0
1453990 tn?1329231426
There seems to be all kinds of damage that can be missed by conventional MRI sequences on 1.5T and 3 T MRIs.  Magnetic Transfer MRI seems to be able to detect changes up to two years prior to the formation of T2 lesions.  Conventional MRI is also limited to detection of macroscopic lesions.  Microscopic damage can destroy small axons and theoretically create demonstrable damage.

Just because you can not see it doesn't mean it isn't here.

Bob

Helpful - 0
1658667 tn?1310091382
Jen and Sidesteps- I also have eye twitching, tingling and numbness. In fact it was the numbness on the left side of my face and arm and the tingling in both and my vision problems that started this journey earlier in the year. It was when they discovered the 2 small lesions and the eye dr. suggested MS. Now I am in limboland H*e*l*l along you sidesteps as well as others.

Bob- can a lesion in that area be so small it is missed on an MRI?
Helpful - 0
338416 tn?1420045702
Thank you Bob - I stopped writing before my thought was finished!  I meant to say that I have a lesion in the pons, and another in the medulla.  
Helpful - 0
1453990 tn?1329231426
The 4th and 5th Cranial Nerve all attach at the pons, so there is a common point in the brain stem.

Bob
Helpful - 0
1475492 tn?1332884167
I'm a limbolander. I share a lot of the same symptoms as Jens.

I have twitching in my jaw, eyelids and cheeks. These sensations sometimes feel like a quivering. I have paresthesia on the right side of my face near my eye represented by a sharp pains, itching, heaviness and decreased sensation.
Helpful - 0
338416 tn?1420045702
The question is always where the problem is - in the nerve, or in the area that the nerve attaches to?  And the answer of course is that we don't really know.  

My personal experience is that I have a lot of symptoms in the facial area - twitching of the mouth and chin, the eyelids, the cheeks...  paresthesia in the right side of my face, numbness on the left...  They say most MS activity happens in the head, because it gets the most blood to the CNS.
Helpful - 0
1658667 tn?1310091382
Thanks Deb and Bob for the answer. I was diagnosed with fourth cranial nerve palsy because of my eye troubles and this has happened on the heels of that experience.

Bob- would you by any chance know if this is related to the 4th nerve thing since it sounds like the 5th nerve may be having problems too?
Helpful - 0
1453990 tn?1329231426
The masseter muscle that closes the mandible is innervated by the Trigeminal Nerve (CN5).  TN can cause both motor and sensory symptoms.

Bob
Helpful - 0
429700 tn?1308007823
I had  tremor in my jaw the last time I had TN.  
Helpful - 0
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