Trigeminal neuralgia spotlighted as Bollywood star shares diagnosis

(CBS) What's trigeminal neuralgia? That's what fans of Salman Khan are asking, now that the Bollywood bad boy actor has revealed that he suffers from the painful nerve condition.

"The pain is a bit too much now," Khan wrote in the Hindustan Times, adding that the pain first started in 2007. "So I'm going now to the U.S. to get it fixed."

Trigeminal neuralgia, a.k.a. tic douloureaux or the "suicide disease," is chronic pain that results when a blood vessel presses against the trigeminal nerve, one of the largest nerves in the head. It causes intense burning or shock-like pain in the face. The discomfort can last anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes, and it can be triggered by shaving, washing the face, tooth-brushing, eating, drinking, talking - just about anything that causes vibration within the cheek.

It can be so intense as to be physically and mentally incapacitating.

"If you Google this thing, you'll find out that the amount of pain it causes results in maximum amount of suicides," Khan wrote. "But I don't get any such feelings. I've started enjoying it now. But it's getting too much. If there was a choice to give this pain to my worst enemy, I would not give it. They wouldn't be able to take it."

Khan didn't say which surgical procedure for trigeminal neuralgia that he's planning to undergo. There are several such procedures, including rhizotomy, in which certain nerve fibers are destroyed. Trigeminal neuralgia can also be treated by anticonvulsant medications and so-called tricyclic antidepressants.

The Facial Pain Association has more on trigeminal neuralgia.