This fall I switched from Lithium to Tegretol. Lithium was depressing and made me gain weight which was even more depressing. But that's not the main reason I switched to Tegretol.
This summer I discovered a new chronic illness to add to my repertoire, as if I needed more. This one is called Trigeminal Neuralgia, and mine was triggered by getting a shot of novocaine and having two fillings replaced. It is treated with Tegretol until eventually that no longer works, then you just want to kill yourself even if you have no mental health issue.
The pain is like an ice cream headache in one whole half of the face. I have pain everywhere that the novocaine effected, and the pain started in earnest when the original numbness wore off. The shot hurt like hell in the first place, but since I'd not had a shot like that before, I didn't realize that was not supposed to happen. There are very few days, and by that I mean one or two days in four months, that I don't have some degree of pain.
Tegretol helps tons with the pain right now. I finally got some complete (although temporary) pain relief after getting the dose of Tegretol up to 600 mg a day. I take the extended relief version three times a day, so I am never completely without some amount of Tegretol to help with the pain.
Tegretol in extended release form is also approved to treat bipolar. And it has been used to treat migraines, which seem to be common with bipolar and Trigeminal Neuralgia. What a coincidence. It doesn't seem to be curing my migraines, but we can't have everything we want. If I were five years younger, it might have done the trick. (It's a woman thing.)
The moral of this story is, if Dr. Dentist tells you your fillings are "cracked" or "seeping," and the teeth aren't bothering you, put off fixing them. Like my big sis told me right before I had this dental work done, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Also, don't let the dentist talk you into a shot of novocaine if you've never needed one for fillings before. If he isn't comfortable with that, let someone else do your dental work.
Tags:
bipolar, dental work, medication, migraines, mood stabilizers, pain, trigeminal neuralgia
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