tingling cheeks

[jimmyC22]

Hello,
I am a 45 y o male. About once every two months, I get strong tingling sensation just below both eyes and right on both cheek bones. It lasts for several(up to 8 hours) and then is gone. When the tingling sensation gets really strong, i feel a tightness just above my navel area, but this tightness comes and goes throughout the episode This has been going on for over 7 years that I am aware of. In that time, I have not been able to correlate it to diet, stress(hyperventilation), medication, or other illness. It does not hurt. It does not cause dizziness. It does not involve my lips. I have tried to take deep cleansing breaths but this actually makes the phenomena worse. The only other time I feel this sensation is when I am using my lungs to inflate a swim raft or large beach ball. Any advice would be appreciated///////

[jimmyC22]

Thank you so much for the time you spent helping me! As i expected, I awoke today with no more tingling. I do however, have a few of the other symptoms that you listed.  Urinary frequency and leakage have been looked into by my Urologist who says my symptoms are minor and of no concern to him. I do get several episodes per day of unilateral ear ringing, which resolves itself within 15 to 30 seconds. I also have CHRONIC fatigue and have been evaluated accordingly. And frequent depressive feelings with some great days mixed in. Been on every SSRI. None work for me.
Bilateral brachial emg's negative results. I do have an appointment with my neuro in 2 weeks. Again, THANK YOU!!!!!!

[Dr Sharma]

Hi there. The pain of trigeminal neuralgia occurs almost exclusively in the maxillary and mandibular divisions. One most commonly feels pain in the maxillary nerve, which runs along one’s cheekbone, most of the nose, upperlip, and upper teeth. Next affected is mandibular nerve, affecting the lower cheek, lower lip, and jaw. In all cases, an excessive burst of nervous activity from a damaged nerve causes the painful attack. since you have primarily tingling, exclude MS which is a chronic demyelinating disorder where the disease phase is characterized by active phase and remissions. It has multiple symptoms and signs and is a diagnosis of exclusion. The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are loss of balance, muscle spasms, numbness in any area, problems with walking and coordination, tremors in one or more arms and legs. Bowel and bladder symptoms include frequency of micturition, urine leakage, eye symptoms like double vision uncontrollable rapid eye movements, facial pain, painful muscle spasms, tingling, burning in arms or legs, depression, dizziness, hearing loss, fatigue etc. The treatment is essentially limited to symptomatic therapy so the course of action would not change much whether MS has been diagnosed or not. Apart from clinical neurological examination, MRI shows MS as paler areas of demyelination, two different episodes of demyelination separated by one month in at least two different brain locations. Spinal tap is done and CSF electrophoresis reveals oligoclonal bands suggestive of immune activity, which is suggestive but not diagnostic of MS. Demyelinating neurons, transmit nerve signals slower than non-demyelinated ones and can be detected with EP tests. These are visual evoked potentials, brain stem auditory evoked response, and somatosensory evoked potential. Slower nerve responses in any one of these is not confirmatory of MS but can be used to complement diagnosis along with a neurological examination, medical history and an MRI in addition, a spinal tap. You also need to be checked for small vessel ischemic disease, cerebral ischemia etc for these MRI lesions.Therefore, it would be prudent to consult your neurologist with these concerns. Hope this helps. Take care.