Does Bilateral Trigeminal Neuralgia Affect Mastication?

Posted on Thu, 4 May 2017

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

Thu, 4 May 2017 Answered on

Wed, 31 May 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : I have triennial neuralgia on both sides of my face, lately it has made it hard to eat and hard to talk. Doers this sounds familiar.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Erion Spaho (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Bilateral trigeminal neuralgia could affect mastication.

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to HCM.

I have read your question and understand your concerns.

Trigeminal nerve includes a motor root besides sensory root.

These motor root nerves part of the trigeminal nerve supply muscles of mastication (the pterygoid, the masseters and the temporal muscles), so, compression of trigeminal nerve as it progresses could affect function of these muscles that play an important part in mastication ( eating ) and jaw movements related to speech.

So, yours is a rare but known case, and treatment differs from unilateral trigeminal neuralgia because treatment ways should spare the motor nerve fibers.

Hope you found the answer helpful.

Kind regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Nagamani Ng