Sleepless Nights

For the last two nights, I have awoken at about 1 a.m. with exquisite pain in my mouth, actually in my entire face. The funny thing is that the pain is not localized in the area where the three teeth (or rather tooth roots) were recently extracted (on the top gum), but rather at the center of the lower gum line, where there are no teeth or roots at all. It's an intense, throbbing pain, as one would have with an abscess, and the gum even seems swollen. Of course, sleep is impossible under these conditions, so I get up and walk around and swish warm water in my mouth and smoke cigarettes until the pain seems to have receded enough to lie down again, which I do only to wake up a couple hours later with the same throbbing pain. Ugh. I'm something of an old hand now at teeth extractions, and I've never before experienced pain this intense. 

It occurred to me (better late than never) to look up possible effects of tooth extractions on MS. Nothing better to do anyway while one is pacing and swizzling and smoking. To my surprise, the article that I find states that a person with MS ought to think carefully before going forward with a tooth extraction as this may cause trigeminal neuropathy or even facial paralysis. Yikes! Who knew? 

And I must say that when I finally sleep and wake again in the morning, my face does feel rather stiff and immovable, and there is a general sort of ache extending from between my eyes to the tip of my chin. I have to kind of work my mouth and massage my jaw before the function begins to seem more normal. Is this trigeminal neuralgia or some other sort of neuralgia? Who knows? In any case, the treatment stated online is anticonvulsant meds such as the one I already take (Pregabalin). So perhaps I should take one of those before going to bed? 

During the day, the pain recedes significantly. So why does it become so intense at night? The supine position? Increased blood flow to the area? I dunno. 

I bought some antibiotics this morning, just to cover that angle, and it will be at least three weeks before I can get my modified set of dentures--which is okay, as I can't imagine trying to cram them into this painful area anyway at present. Nor do I mind not eating much of anything aside from broth, because eating, too, is basically unpleasant under the circumstances.