Vitamin B12 injection, VM and trigeminal neuralgia

Hi all,
I could find lots of reference to B12 of course and B vitamins in general, but not so much about B12 injections. So, I started this new thread.

I mentioned somewhere along the way on the forum here my long, long battle with tooth / jaw pain. This has spanned for no less than 15 years and I have seen multiple dentists, have had root canals then crowns, crowns then root canals, bite adjustments, multiple bite guards and each dentist can find no reason for the ongoing pain / ache. The xrays and ct scans show no reason for this.

My Neurologist intervened last year when he heard me mention that I started having them pulled and planned on having them all pulled in the upper right quadrant if that’s what it took. He said he thought it may be my migraine and not actual tooth pain. He sent me to an Oral Surgeon who agreed 100%. I still feel the pain and can’t imagine this is caused by migraine, so I ended up at an Endodontist 2 weeks ago.

He was really wonderful and the first to sit and really talk me through what he believes is going on. He explained that he believes it is actually trigeminal neuralgia, which I am slightly familiar with after learning some about it here on the forum. Thankfully I have a mild case that is a constant ache that I’ve lived with for the past 15 years and not the stabbing, searing, horrible pain so many have with the condition. The Endodontic suggested Gabapentin since it’s used for both migraine and TN.

Since I feel very good about the treatment plan I am on and do not want to add or change it, I researched a bit and found some references to B12 possibly helping with the pain. I got my first B12 injection last week and felt kinda crummy the first 2 days afterward. Almost as if I had drunk caffeine. However, after that wore off… I have had surprisingly good VM days since then. I don’t feel any difference yet with the TN and may not or it may take some months, but I was surprised to have a happy side affect for once! I will continue to have the B12 injections every 2 weeks for a few months to see if they help and I will report back to let you all know if I find further relief with the VM symptoms as well.

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Trouble is with the human body. It’s all linked up. And as always makes me wonder at the advantages/disadvantages of the specialist experts set up. Um. No doubt you have trawled the archive posts on trigeminal neuralgia. @Jojo65 comes immediately to mind. She takes Gabapentin for the pain. You really must speak with her.

One wonders where and how strong the MAV connections might be. I never knew quite where my Trig Nerve was until a physio manipulated it about this time last year and the result was an eleven day vestibular attack, my longest ever to date. I didn’t know B12 injections were used for it. That in itself is interesting. I know several people who have them for pernicious anaemia. One of them has them every twelve weeks I think it is and he always says he can feel when he’s due for the next one, interestingly he gets dizzy too then which lasts until he’s had the next jab and sometimes he feels like you did for a couple of days afterwards. May just be coincidence. I remember doing a lot of reading about pernicious anaemia for myself early on because symptoms seem similar to MAV, my grandfather had pernicious anaemia controlled by regular injections of B12 and it tends to run in certain families. Now your post will have me revisiting my notes for sure. It will be interesting to see what, if any, effect the B12 has on your vestibular condition. Have you actually been tested for B12 deficiency? Not sure if you still migraine diet? But nothing will ever convince me a lot of them arent vitamin deficient and Btw whilst checking out before typing this post I noticed low calcium could actually cause a B12 deficiency.

This is so so interesting! I’ve had unexplained tooth and jaw pain for YEARS. Sometimes it has been so bad that I’ve felt every tooth in my jaw with every footstep. And like you, xrays always show my teeth are absolutely fine. It wasn’t continual, but would flare up for three/four weeks at a time and was absolute agony. I have only had this pain once since being hospitalised 15 months ago with vestibular symptoms, and that was when I had what the doctor thought was a sinus infection - although it didn’t present with typical symptoms. I’ve been on amitriptyline to prevent vestibular migraines for a while now and haven’t had any jaw or teeth pain since. Now I’m thinking that there is undoubtedly a link - thank you for raising this!

Oh there’s been a long known existent link between facial pain, Trig nerves and migraine. And lots of migraineurs suffer with facial pain and issues. Were you aware Amitriptyline is and has for many years been used off lable for chronic long term pain?

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I don’t think my knowledge around much of all this is particularly great! Learning something new every day it seems!

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