For 30 years, Kamala Devi, a 59-year-old from India’s Delhi, believed she had a dental issue. She had unbearable, electric shock-like pain on one side of her face, which led her to visit multiple dentists. Over time, she had three to four teeth removed one after the other, hoping for relief. But the pain didn’t stop. Instead, it only worsened.
Her case is a stark reminder of how a rare neurological condition, Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) can be due to severity of pain. The rare nerve condition, which grabbed headlines after actor Salman Khan revealed his battle with it in 2023, often goes misdiagnosed as dental pain, leading to years of suffering for many like Kamala Devi.
Doctors say Trigeminal Neuralgia is an extremely painful condition where a nerve in the face the trigeminal nerve, gets compressed, often by a blood vessel or tumour. “It feels like a sudden electric current in the face. People live in fear of the next attack,” said Dr. Amit Srivastava, Director of Neurosurgery at Aakash Healthcare. “In Kamala’s case, the pain was wrongly assumed to be dental for years. She lost multiple teeth, but the actual issue remained undiagnosed.”
When Kamala came to Aakash Healthcare, she had already tried various medications and treatments with no success. Though she was suspected to have Trigeminal Neuralgia, the real cause was still a mystery.
That changed when doctors decided to go for a high-resolution MRI with Trigeminal Nerve Neurography – a more advanced form of imaging than what had been used previously. The scan revealed a slow-growing epidermoid tumour, a benign (non-cancerous) brain tumor pressing against her trigeminal nerve.
“This tumor was the root cause of all her pain. It was something basic scans could not pick up,” Dr. Srivastava explained. “Once we identified it, we planned and performed a surgery to remove it. The results were almost immediate.” Dr Srivastava further said that the commonest cause of trigeminal neuralgia (facial pain ) is vascular loop near the root entry zone of 5th nerve in the brain especially AICA (Anterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery). But in our case there was a benign tumor around the trigeminal nerve- epidermoid.
Kamala’s recovery has been nothing short of life-changing. Kamala is now completely pain-free and no longer needs medication.
Her story underlines a bigger problem in India, lack of awareness and the absence of proper diagnostic facilities in many places. Experts say that many patients with facial pain end up at dentists, and due to the overlapping symptoms, the real issue often goes unnoticed. By the time they see a neurologist or neurosurgeon, they have already suffered for years.
“Trigeminal Neuralgia is rare but not unknown. The key is awareness,” said Dr. Srivastava. “If someone is having repeated facial pain and dental treatments are not helping, they should be evaluated by a specialist.”
Dr. Aashish Chaudhry, Managing Director of Aakash Healthcare, added, “This case shows the importance of questioning the obvious. When pain doesn’t respond to normal treatment, it’s time to dig deeper. We need more specialised centres and awareness for such conditions.”
Kamala’s case is a lesson not just in medicine but in the importance of second opinions, better diagnostics, and never giving up on finding the right answer, said Dr Chaudhry.
