Epidemiologic assessment of trigeminal neuralgia in patients referred to the Imam clinic of Hamedan city during 2013-2015

Trigeminal neuralgia is the most common disease of the fifth cranial nerve. This study aimed at evaluating the epidemiology of patients with the trigeminal neuralgia referred to Imam Clinic in Hamedan City, Iran.
In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 40 patients with trigeminal neuralgia symptoms were studied. Diagnosis of patients was made based on the history, physical examination and paraclinical tests.
This study was conducted on 27 (67.5%) females and 13 (32.5%) males with the mean ages of 43.3±16.9 and 51.7±21.5 years, respectively (P=0.526).The incidence of this disease was higher among young women than others. The right side involvement was detected in 47.5%, left side involvement in 40% and bilateral involvement in 12.5% of the cases. Regarding the engaged nerve branch, simultaneous engagement of maxillary and mandibular nerves was seen in 47.5%, mandibular in 27.5%, maxillary in 20%, and ophthalmic in 5% of the individuals. The primary causes were seen in 42.5% and secondary causes in 57.5% of the cases. Among the secondary causes, face surgery and multiple sclerosis had the highest rate (39.1%), followed by tumors (21.7%). Also, 65% of the patients had normal MRI and 35% had abnormal one.
Due to the similar symptoms of the disease such as dental pain, and also maxillofacial surgery in the elderly as one of the most common secondary causes of this disease, facial surgeons and dentists should know more about this disease to avoid unnecessary surgeries.