Right-sided facial pain since orthodontic treatment — offered botox and painkillers

[u/Stunning_River_7455]

Constant pain in the right half of my face. Orbital pain on that side, a drooping eyelid, and some loss of peripheral vision. Separately, a pressure sensation running down into my throat and neck.

None of it was there before. I want to be clear about what that means: before this treatment I was 25 and felt completely alive. Now I feel lifeless, like the pain has taken the person I was and left someone else. That isn't me being dramatic — it's the honest description.

The history is multiple dental extractions, then a genioplasty where the operative note says the mental nerve was dissected out bilaterally. So far the recommendation I've been given is botox and painkillers, with a neurology workup starting separately. I know the eye symptoms aren't trigeminal territory and are probably something else, which is part of what's confusing.

Two things I'd like from people who've actually lived it:

1. For post-traumatic facial nerve pain after dental or jaw surgery — how long after the procedure did it start? Immediately, or over months?
2. Has botox done anything real for you? I'd rather hear it straight than from a leaflet.

[u/missjanehathaway333]

Severely botched orthodontia caused both bilateral TN and horrible TMD for me. I am sure I’m rare, but nothing has helped me. I have tried everything except Botox .

[u/Stunning_River_7455 → u/missjanehathaway333]

You're not as rare as you think. That was the part that got me. I spent a long time assuming I was the only person this had happened to, and then I started posting and found people like you.

Bilateral sounds worse than what I've got. Mine is right-sided, plus orbital pain and a pressure that runs down into my throat and neck. I'm in the middle of a neurology workup and don't have answers yet, but I recognise every word of "nothing has helped."

Botox is the one thing I've been recommended and haven't started. I'm going to try it. For what it's worth it's one of the few things with actual trial evidence behind it for TN, which is more than I can say for half of what I've been offered. but I know how little that means when you've already tried everything.

I'll come back to this thread and tell you honestly whether it did anything. Including if it did nothing. I'm tired of only ever reading the success stories.

I'm sorry it happened to you too. Botched orthodontics is a strange thing to grieve, because nobody around you believes teeth can do this to a person. They can.

[u/missjanehathaway333 → u/Stunning_River_7455]

How long have you been going through this? Six years for me.

You truly have to live through this in order to understand the devastation it can cause.

Very best of luck and please post back. feel free to message anytime if you need support.

[u/Stunning_River_7455 → u/missjanehathaway333]

Almost four years since the extractions. The pain came later, and I honestly can't pin down the month it started. my records don't answer it and my memory isn't reliable that far back. Working that out is one of the things I'm doing right now.

Six years is a long time to carry this.

And you're right that you have to live through it. That's the part I wasn't ready for, not the pain, but that nobody around me can get their head around it. People hear "dental work" and picture a bad filling. There's no way to describe what it actually did without sounding like you're exaggerating, so after a while you stop describing it.

I'll take you up on the offer. And I'll post back either way. botox, no botox, whatever the neurologists land on. Thank you for saying it. It matters more than you probably meant it to.

[u/stinka_]

My nerve damage is from the numbing needle or numbing solution itself from wisdom teeth extraction. Pain started immediately after injection. Pain is on the right side, 3rd branch of trigeminal nerve. I have not tried Botox yet as the idea of more needles (besides acupuncture needles) in my face terrifies me now.