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Exams and Tests

• Your doctor must rule out a variety of other causes of facial pain besides trigeminal neuralgia, including various unusual forms of headache.
  
  
  • Atypical neuralgia
    
    
  • Myofascial pain
    
    
  • Temporomandibular facial pain
    
    
  • Cluster headaches
    
    
  • Local disease in the sinuses, jaw, throat, and bones of your head
  
  
• Physical examination of the head will help define other possible causes of this painful syndrome. Physical findings in people with trigeminal neuralgia are normal.
  
  
• A doctor should complete an initial neurological examination to determine the presence of other conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, that are associated with nerve pain syndromes like trigeminal neuralgia.
  
  
• Doctors reserve more extensive testing, such as a CT scan or MRI of the head, for people in whom they suspect an associated condition, such as skull or brain tumor, infection, or neurological condition.