What is Neuralgia

Neuralgia is a general term for nerve pain affecting the peripheral nerves. This is a medical condition which results in spasmodic, chronic pain along a single nerve or group of nerves in the head or neck. The most common cause of neuralgia is neuritis, inflammation of, or injury to the nerve. There are several main types of neuralgia including trigeminal, postherpetic and occipital. More rarely, a person can be afflicted with glossopharyngeal neuralgia.

Trigeminal neuralgia affects the trigeminal nerve which has three branches; one to the lower jaw, the second to the upper jaw and cheek, the third to the forehead and around the eye area. Trigeminal neuralgia is very painful resulting in sharp spasms on one side of the face, often affecting the forehead, eyes, scalp, lips, nose or jaws.
Postherpetic neuralgia is a painful condition affecting your nerve fibers and skin. It is a complex form of shingles, a second outbreak of the varicella-zoster virus, which initially causes chickenpox. During an initial infection of chickenpox, part of the virus can remain in the system, lying dormant inside nerve cells for many years; then due to factors such as age, illness, stress or medications the virus can be reactivated causing shingles, it can also reactivate for no apparent reason.
Occipital neuralgia results in spasms of pain to the back, front and sides of the head and can be caused by spinal injury, such as whiplash or similar and sometimes caused by gout or diabetes.