chronic pain

Two years ago I had a lower face lift and since then I have had pain in my neck under my chin, between the surgical incisions in front of and behind both ears.  The pain is more sever when I get hot and my neck feels like it is burning up.  When I touch the skin, it feels fingers are cutting the skin.  

My surgeon said he had never had anyone have this problem before.... that was not very comforting.

He put me on neurontin and recently gave me a cream of benzecaine, lidocaine, and tetracaine.  It is working much better than the neurontin but, when the medication wears off, the pain is as severe as before.  

My surgeon has sugested if the ointment did not work, he recommended I have another facial surgery in hopes the nerves causing the pain will be disrupted and the pain would go away.  He said there would be no charge so I am not worried that he is trying to get more money... he has been very good about trying to find out the reason this happened.  What would you recommend.

Thank you,

[Howard Rosenberg, MD]

Persistent pain following a lower facelift is very unusual this long after the surgery.  My only other suggestion is to be evaluated by a neurologist or multispecialty pain center (usually located at university teaching hospitals) to see if there is an undiagnosed underlying cause for this chronic condition.

[polomom]

I am 4 yrs out since my facelift and am still dealing with chronic pain, tightness from ear to ear and now radiating up the left side of my face.  I have spent this past year going to a long list of drs including specialists to no avail.
I am returning again to the original surgeon that left me in this mess...he got tired of hearing from me and pretty much told me he couldn't help me.  I can not bear to live in this pain.  If you have any success with treatment, etc please contact me.
Thanks

[kathie32]

A related discussion, Chronic Pain Following face lift was started.