facial nerve pain

[donbaa]

I'm having a second bout of facial pain that I believe is triggered by alergic reaction.  Two years ago my doc doubled my dosage of pravachol and the pain started.  Stopping the pravachol stoped the pain.  As a test, I restarted the pravachol, and the pain was back.  Now, two years later, it came back.  I can quickly relieve 95% of the pain with benadryl.  Ibubprofen will eliminate the rest.  But it can reappeared with eating hot, or chewy food.  I'm thinking the heat swells the nerve and causes irration.  Ice knocks it down.  The pain seems to start near the ear and travels to the left side of my mouth, then down to the left side of my chin.  The most severe pain is in the teeth and can move around to different teeth.  Last time, I went to my GP, Dentist, Ear-Nose-Throgt specialist.  No cause was found until I discovered the pravachol connection.  Cured for two years.  I'm thinking I ran into something I'm allergic to, or my body decided not to tollerate one of my meds.  I have stoped taking my Vytorin and a multi vitamine.  I will restart them one at a time after this is gone to see if it is one of them.  The current bout is two days old.  

Do you have any suggestions.  Has anyone heard of an allergy connection, or do you think I'm on the wrong track?

72 year old Don in Colorado

[donbaa]

Update:  My nerve pain is experienced in my teeth.  I have come to the conclusion that statin drugs are the cause.  I have been on and off several statins all with the same results.  Take the statin and the pain appears; stop and it goes away.  I have been off now for three years and no pain.

[sonu78]

HI,
It does not look like the drug Pravachol is causing any allergic reaction. This drug, pravastatin (pharmacological name) belongs to the class of drugs called “statins” that are used for lowering cholesterol. The adverse effects reported are headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, and abnormal liver tests. Inflammation of the muscles caused by statins can lead to a serious breakdown of muscle cells called rhabdomyolysis
The symptoms do look like that of neuralgia.  

Kindly do consult your physician for a proper and complete evaluation of your symptoms.

[Godofredo MD]

Hi.

Am I correct in assuming that you have totally stopped taking pravastatin (Pravachol) since 2 years ago?

If the symptoms appear with intake of a particular medication and disappears upon discontinuation, it is, indeed, likely that the medication might have caused the symptoms to appear. However, if you have already stopped the medication for a long time and symptoms are now resurfacing, there are 2 possibilities that could explain it. One of them is another allergy (as you are thinking) to a different medication. Your method of stopping current drug intake and restarting them one at a time is a very good method of testing for this.

A second possibility is the presence of an underlying disorder that could be causing the pain. A common cause of facial pain is trigeminal neuralgia and could definitely be triggered by chewing or eating.

You should ask you doctor about this possibilities.

Hope this helps.