Persistent pins and needles mouth area - aura?
I have been a migraine patient since my early teens, roughly 40 years ago now. About eight years ago my migraine became chronic, in the meantime evolved to daily chronic. For a few years now I have been experiencing a new sensation together with the headache and the other migraine symptoms: pins and needles in my lips, front of the mouth and tip of my tongue. For the last few months this sensation has been constantly present, it does not go away, regardless of the intensity of the headache. Sometimes it is stronger for a few minutes, but it is always there at some level. My migraine neurologist does not really respond to my questions about this. Also a second neurologist that I visited because of a hereditary form of ataxia disease could not tell me more about this and doesn't consider this as a probable symptom of the hereditary ataxia, although this is also a neurological disease. Can I still consider this a migraine aura, being it persistent? Does anyone recognize themselves in this type of aura that is constantly present day and night, for months or longer?
Hi. I'm not an expert, but I've been here on the site for a long time and can offer some speculation (not medical advice)! I'm not sure if this is technically aura, as aura is just one phase of migraine and would typically come and go. But it could certainly be a new part of your migraine experience -- I took a look through the archives and some people do have mouth or tongue issues with migraine.
One thing that did come to mind is the trigeminal nerve. This is a nerve in your head that can cause all kinds of facial symptoms, from your eyes to your chin. This can also include the tongue and lips, which is why I thought of it.
Trigeminal nerve issues can be a factor in migraine. There is also a separate condition called trigeminal neuralgia that you may want to explore with your doctors. I have usually seen people describe trigeminal neuralgia as pain, not so much as tingling, but there's no harm in looking into it.
Here are two articles that explain more:
https://migraine.com/living-migraine/trigeminal-nerve
https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-and-trigeminal-neuralgia
What do you think about this? Again, I am not an expert, so I'm just speculating along with you. But I hope you can get to the bottom of this, especially as your migraines continue to evolve. Don't be afraid to continue to ask questions of your doctors, and to seek other opinions if you feel like you're not getting the help/expertise you need. Let me know if we can provide you with some directories of certified headache specialists.
Hope some of this is useful. We're here to support you! -Melissa, team memberThank you so much for your input, Melissa! I agree that this sensation might not be just aura, although it might have started as aura a few years ago. It could definitely be related to or be part of some type of neuralgia. To get the complete picture, I should probably have mentioned the fact that over the last three years, I also suffer from a second headache disorder with stinging pains on the skull throughout the day. Since it occurs on the same side of my head as the migraines have since decades, it is difficult to distinguish the two, only over the last year I realized that there is probably a second type of headache in place. I received no diagnosis on this yet. I always considered this 'pins and needles' sensation as migraine-related, but maybe that is not - or not solely -the case. I will visit my neurologist in a few weeks and will further discuss the issue with him. Thanks again for your take on this, I will check out the links you provided!
