But, which umbrella is it?
One of the challenges of the chronic facial pain conditions is that there are so many similar-but-distinct conditions. For ease of communication when raising awareness, it has been accepted to refer to all chronic facial pain conditions as TN, the least rare and best known of the group. As in “International Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Day.” This is understandable because it’s otherwise very hard to talk about a condition that is basically unknown. But making TN a shorthand umbrella term for the other neuralgias does a disservice to those in the patient community who have a variety of chronic facial pain that isn’t TN.
At the Facial Pain Advocacy Alliance, we want to be an agent of change in how the language is used. When raising awareness, instead of TN being the umbrella term for all of the other chronic facial pain conditions, TN should take its rightful place as one of the conditions under the umbrella. We believe the umbrella itself should be chronic facial pain.
What is your diagnosis? If it’s not TN, or if you have something in addition to TN, what are your feelings about our TN-centric chronic facial pain culture? Please post your opinions in the comments section and let’s start a dialogue about making a positive change to the way we regard and refer to our different diagnoses.