Age 65 Male. No BP Or Diabetes . Heavy Smoker

Posted on Thu, 8 Nov 2018

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 8 Nov 2018 Answered on

Last reviewed on

Question : Age 65 Male. No BP or Diabetes. Heavy Smoker for the past 35yrs.. Suffering from COPD 3rd stage. For the past 10 days been experiencing pain at starting from left temple to underneath of the ear. It's like pressing with a needle at that spot. Presently using medication of MUCINAC & DUOLIN with nebuliser for COPD. ENZOFLAM worked for headache for sometime but now it is ineffective. Plz suggest proper medication sir.

Answered by Dr. Vaishalee Punj (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
It seems trigeminal neuralgia

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to Ask A Doctor service.

I have reviewed your query and here is my advice.

From your description this seems to be Trigeminal neuralgia. Dental problem can also cause one side pain.
Trigeminal neuralgia will get better with medicines that work on nerves. You can try the following:

- Consult a neurologist to confirm diagnosis. An MRI brain may also be needed
- Carbamazepine or gabapentin may be effective .
Carbamazepine can be tried first in the dose of 100 mg 2 times a day.

Hope this helps. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Dr Vaishalee

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar