Nerve compression in the skull can cause different symptoms depending on the nerve affected:

• Trigeminal nerve: Sharp, electric-shock-like pain in your face, gums, or teeth. This can make eating, chewing, or talking painful (trigeminal neuralgia).
• Facial nerve: Uncontrollable twitching or spasms in your face (hemifacial spasms).
• Glossopharyngeal nerve: Severe pain in your throat or ear, making swallowing painful (glossopharyngeal neuralgia).

These symptoms can be very uncomfortable and may not always improve with medicines or other treatments such as Botox injections.

If you have severe facial pain, facial twitching, or throat pain, you might have nerve compression. Talk to your doctor if you notice:

• Sharp or burning pain in your face, teeth, or throat.
• Twitching or spasms in your face that you can’t control.
• Pain that doesn’t go away with medicines or gets worse over time.

IMPORTANT FOR ALL PATIENTS.

If you are on any blood thinning medications such as anti-platelet, anti-coagulant or anti-inflammatory medications, they should be stopped one week prior to any surgery. Examples of these medications include plavix, co-plavix, prasugrel, ticagrelor, asasantin, aspirin, disprin, solprin, astrix, cartia, warfarin, pradaxa, dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban, clexane, heparin, celebrex, mobic, naproxen, indomethacin, diclofenac, ibuprofen.

Some diabetes medications need to be stopped up to three weeks prior to surgery. Please discuss with your doctor if you are taking one of these medications.

Similarly, any herbal or natural remedies including (but not limited to) traditional Chinese herbal remedies and prescriptions, naturopathic and homeopathic treatments, and supplements (such as glucosamine, garlic, ginger, ginkgo, ginseng, turmeric and fish oil) should be stopped one week prior to any surgery.

If these medications are not stopped, then your surgery may need to be delayed and rescheduled for reasons of safety. If you are unsure about whether you need to stop any of your medications, please ask your doctor.

Depending on your general fitness and your medical co-morbidities, you may require an assessment by physician specialists and an anaesthetist to assess your safety for surgery, before a decision can be made about your suitability for surgery.

Prior to any surgery, you will need to fast. On the night prior to surgery, your last mouthful of food should be prior to 12 midnight. On the day of surgery, you can sip clear water up until 4 hours prior to your surgery. You may use this opportunity to take medications that your doctor is happy for you to take. Please check with your doctor, what you should do with your medications and write those instructions here.

A member of staff from the hospital or the surgeon’s rooms will contact you up to three days prior to your admission and discuss this with you. They will also discuss your hospital paperwork if this has not been done. This is your opportunity to ask any questions you may have about your upcoming admission.