Shingles or not? i have electrical shooting pain near my left ear going towards the eye. no rash. very painful. i have had this pain for 5 days. since i am taking predisone daily for polymyalgia could that keep the rash away? the pain is similar to when i

A : A board certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon may be able to help with the diagnosis and to rule out a dental source for the pain..Typically shingles affects the distribution of a major nerve trunk. I would expect more of an affected area, involving either the forehead or cheek area if it were shingles involving the area you describe. The lesions of shingles should have appeared withing five days of you experiencing the the sensation.

We : We have to get the diagnosis right first before we can tell you what might help and how long you'll be troubled. Could this be shingles? Yes! did you get a vaccination after your first episode? If so, that should decrease your risk by 50% of ever getting another bout. Maybe this is an atypical presentation of ramsay hunt where your ear gets affected more. Do you have any weakness or asymmetry of your face? Perhaps this is trigeminal neuralgia? Or an atypical cluster headache? Of course, this could be a manifestation of your pmr (polymyalgia rheumatica) known as temporal arteritis, in which case, enough Prednisone is the key to keep from going blind. My point is this: go see your doctor (again) and get checked out. Good luck!