With such a diagnosis as left-sided prosopalgia, not everyone knows which doctor to contact. In general, this complex term in the field of medicine means pain that is localized near the face. In order to find out the cause of its appearance, you will need to go to several specialists at once.
Some information about the disease
Due to the fact that the facial part has a complex anatomical organization, pain in this area can appear for various reasons. Defining it will be a little difficult. There may be a lesion of the facial or dental nerve or something else. In any case, only a specialist with examinations and analyzes can answer the question of why left-sided prosopalgia formed. Treatment of this disease is very difficult and long-term. As a rule, patients with this diagnosis turn to specialists such as an otorhinolaryngologist, a neurologist and a therapist.
Left-sided prosopalgia: causes of the disease
This diseaseappears due to a number of factors, of which there are a large number.
When the jaw and teeth are affected, odontogenic pains are formed. Unpleasant sensations are transmitted to the face. The most common causes of this disease are caries, damage to the pulp or dental nerve. In the presence of such symptoms, the pain is of a throbbing nature in the jaw area. If you drink cold water or hot tea, the discomfort becomes stronger. For the diagnosis and treatment of left-sided prosopalgia of the face, a consultation with a dentist is required.
Another common type of this disease is Slader's syndrome. With it, pain is disturbing in the area of the eyes, tongue and ears. Moreover, these unpleasant sensations can be given to the neck and shoulder blades.
Carotidinia is characterized by pain in the face due to inflammation of the carotid arteries. With such left-sided prosopalgia, unpleasant sensations occur in the area of \u200b\u200bthe neck and teeth. As a rule, a person suffers from this ailment within a few hours. It becomes especially unpleasant at the moment when someone touches the carotid arteries.
What is Charlene syndrome?
In this disease, the main pain is localized in the nose and inner corners of the eye. In addition to everything else, conjunctivitis and a runny nose are added to it. Unpleasant sensations also occur in parts of the face, temples and forehead. In this case, the movements of the joints are limited, a kind of crunch appears, chewing functions are disturbed when eating any food.
When the trigeminal nerve is affected, there are very strong discomfort in the face. When taking antispasmodic or analgesic drugs, the pain does not disappear. Immediate specialist help needed.
Other causes of left-sided prosopalgia of the face are migraine or otitis media.
What is earache?
This phenomenon characterizes itself as an earache. Unpleasant sensations are localized not only here, but also in part of the face. Such symptoms can have a fairly large number of diseases. You should contact a specialist and undergo an examination. Possible nasopharyngeal tumor or thrombosis of the venous sinus. Also, the possibility that it is most likely just a migraine should not be ruled out. One of the possible diseases with this symptomatology is idiopathic otalgia. It is characterized by the fact that ear pain occurs due to unknown reasons.
There is also red ear syndrome. With this disease, discomfort is very painful and is given to the jaw and neck. The blood vessels dilate and the skin takes on a reddish tint. And the temperature in the auricle becomes much higher.
Characteristic of atypical prosopalgia
This ailment is also characterized by pain in the face and neck. But the reason for their occurrence is not entirely clear and known. The disease usually develops in older women. Usually this includes pain of a vegetative-vascular nature. When a patient suffers from atypical prosopalgia,unpleasant sensations pursue him always in the region of the face and pass to the neck. The pain is on one side. If it is bilateral, then it is characterized by asymmetry.
This disease also includes glossalgia, in which there are pains in the area of the tongue. At the moment of an emotional outburst during the day, unpleasant sensations increase or, conversely, decrease. As a rule, it is very difficult for patients to describe the nature of the pain.
What are the classifications of pain syndromes?
According to the mechanism of development, somatogenic, psychogenic, vegetative and neurogenic unpleasant sensations are distinguished. The first type is associated with the impact on the human body of damaging factors during injury. For example, pain with damage to internal organs. Neurogenic syndrome appears due to damage to the structures of the central nervous system.
Vegetalgia occurs with pathologies of internal organs. Psychogenic pains include those unpleasant sensations that, as a rule, arise after strong emotional experiences or depressions. In this case, the patient relies on his condition and describes the situation as he sees it at the moment.
Left-sided prosopalgia: symptoms of the disease
One of the most distinctive signs of this disease is very strong pain in the face. They may be different in nature. Someone has paroxysmal or aching discomfort, while another patient has acute ones. It all depends on the cause of left-sided prosopalgia. It also happens that the pain increaseswhen swallowing chewed food or pressing on the jaw, teeth.
In addition to discomfort in the face, there are other symptoms that also apply to this disease:
- high body temperature;
- lack of desire to eat;
- congestion of the nasal passages;
- increase in size of lymph nodes;
- violation of restful sleep due to severe pain;
- redness of the skin and the appearance of a rash on it;
- typical facial asymmetry;
- periodic tinnitus;
- fatigue and weakness;
- increased lacrimation;
- appearance of a nervous tic.
How is a disease diagnosed?
This process is very long. It includes several stages. To begin with, the specialist collects all the information and analyzes the human disease. After that, the doctor asks about what worries the patient, and finds out the causes of the listed symptoms. If necessary, the therapist further gives a referral to such narrow specialists as an otorhinolaryngologist, neurologist and dentist. It should be noted that this procedure is not always mandatory.
Then you will need to undergo an X-ray examination. Thanks to him, it will be possible to find out the nature of unpleasant sensations.
Complete blood count is also a mandatory procedure. From its results, you can tell if there is inflammation or not.
Magnetic-resonant tomography is prescribed if, with left-sided prosopalgia, the diagnosis by previous methods did not give a final conclusion on the disease. With the help of this procedure, the source of inflammation is established, and, accordingly, you can find out the cause of the development of the disease.
They also do a test for the presence of inflammatory processes on the mucous membrane. Note that these methods are used only if the others did not help.
In addition to the above procedures, the therapist and narrow specialists can refer to other diagnostic procedures. In this case, it is necessary to strictly adhere to the prescribed therapy and take only those medicines that the doctor prescribes. Do not self-medicate. This will only exacerbate the situation. Remember that a timely visit to a medical institution guarantees recovery without complications.
How is the treatment done?
There is no single list of activities for this disease. In left-sided prosopalgia, treatment depends on the causes of its occurrence. In addition, the specialist focuses on the nature of discomfort and the reasons for their development.
Usually, first of all, the doctor tries to help the patient get rid of the pain with an injection in the part of the face where it occurred. Why injections, isn't it possible to get by with pills only? Unfortunately, in this case, such drugs do not help.
What procedures does a specialist prescribe for a disease?
Sometimes the patient is sent to the physical room. Here the patient passesphysiotherapy procedures where painkillers are used. For example, with left-sided prosopalgia, a disease of the nervous system, electrophoresis with novocaine is often prescribed. Treatments such as hydrocarbon treatment, magnetotherapy and laser therapy are also carried out. If there is inflammation in the human body and the process develops, then they are treated with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs.
The general recommendation for all patients is to take vitamins. This is what will increase the body's resistance to all kinds of harmful bacteria, as well as improve immunity protection.
What is the prevention of prosopalgia?
In order for you to get sick less, you should pay more attention to your he alth and lifestyle. Namely, as mentioned above, to strengthen the immune system, the protective function of the body with the help of vitamins and tempering procedures. Everyone needs to avoid hypothermia. Because of this, not only left-sided prosopalgia can develop, but also infections of the upper respiratory tract. In case of diseases of the ears and teeth, you should immediately contact a specialist so that there are no complications.
Of course, when the first symptoms of prosopalgia appear, you need to go to the doctor and get the appropriate treatment. The sooner you take action, the easier and faster the disease will pass.
