My daughter was just 15 years old when she woke up one day with a sore jaw accompanied by a painful burning sensation about 8 months ago. One of her upper back teeth has given her a lot of problems over the years requiring 2 root canals, so we figured it was infected and acting up again. I took her to an endodontist and he recommended that the tooth be extracted because of chronic problems with the tooth. We were given some antibiotics and pain meds and were sent on our way. The following week, I arranged to have the tooth extracted by an oral surgeon. After a week or so, instead of the pain decreasing, it was increasing and the burning sensation continued to grow worse and worse. The right side of her face began to feel as tho someone was jabbing her with needles and she told me that the tooth socket from the extracted tooth felt like someone was digging very deeply with a sharp object. I was told to take her to an ear, nose, throat doctor, which I did, but he could find nothing wrong. We ended up seeing several more doctors, dentists and oral surgeons until finally someone mentioned Trigeminal Neuralgia. We ended up going to a neurologist and he prescribed Tegretol, eventually working her up to 800 mgs/day. This seemed to work for about 3 months and now the pain is back worse than ever. She has excruciating headaches every single day, the right side of her jaw, lip, nostril and roof of her mouth burn. She said it feels like someone is holding an internal match all along the right side of her face. Her teeth hurt, her gums burn, she has stabbing pain in her ear and sometimes, tingling on the right side of her lips. The neurologist added 300mgs of Neurontin daily, but it is having no effect on her pain level. I have had to take her to the ER 5 times in the past 7 months so she could get Dilaudid in her IV, which would at least provide her with a few hours of relief from the horrendous pain. She tells me that she experiences pain on a constant basis, but at times, it becomes unbearable. She takes Hydrocodone when the pain gets that bad. The problem is, here lately, she is in unbearable pain every single day and I am at my wit's end. She does online schooling because this condition has made it virtually impossible to sit in a classroom setting all day, but even though she is at home, her high levels of pain have made it extremely difficult for her to do school work. I am really, really afraid for her future and it is killing me inside to see her going through such agony! No 16 year old girl wants to live a life like this! She is such a sweet girl, no drugs, alcohol, no partying, smoking, anything at all like that. She used to be a wonderful student with a marked skill for creative writing and now she can't even do that! My question is this: Since she has constant pain, can this still be TN? I have read that TN sufferers have intermittent pain, but my daughter experiences pain all the time, at least on some level. Any advice, help, suggestions, words of encouragement, ANYTHING, would be so very much appreciated. Thank you.