Trigeminal neuralgia is a painful condition caused by nerve inflammation of the trigeminal nerve. This pain is in the nerve system that sends sensation messages from your face to your brain.

People report that the sensation feels like an electric shock. Not so much fun, right?

Essential oils for trigeminal neuralgia can help in two ways:

The first being that they can help reduce the inflammation temporarily and provide some relief.

The second goal is to reduce anxiety associated with feeling an attack come on.

Stress in your body is a natural response to fear but can still work against your healing efforts and make attacks come on faster or more severe.

Trigeminal neuralgia is also sometimes referred to as neuropathy, so you will see that term used below.

If you are suffering from any other type of neuropathy such as Bell’s Palsy, the essential oils mentioned below will help you too!

Essential Oils for Trigeminal Neuralgia

Essential oils are made from the extract of plants. The compounds that are extracted are from the plant’s bark, stems, leaves, and fruit. T

hey contain the essence and unique healing properties of the plant. The resulting oil (yes, plants produce oil!) has very unique and concentrated healing properties.

They can be used for various purposes, including physical, mental, emotional, and energetic healing.

The Best Essential Oils for Trigeminal Neuralgia

Determining which essential oil will help your neuropathy the most depends on your goal and the severity of the issue you are dealing with.

Here are some oils and what they help best with to get you started:

1. Vetiver essential oil

It is a thick, gummy oil with a very earthy aroma. It is soporific which means it acts as a mild sedative. It also helps to renew cells. There are some interesting studies on this!

2. Frankincense essential oil

It is the king of oils, it is pain and inflammation relieving and works so well for either condition. This is a key oil to have on hand for neuropathy, research suggests.

3. Copaiba

It is so subtly aromatic, it might go unnoticed. It is powerful against head and neck tension and reduces the aches via inflammation pathways.

4. Turmeric essential oil

It is a highly concentrated version of the anti-inflammatory spice. It can be powerful to reduce inflammation or quell anxiety around an upcoming attack.

5. Black Pepper

It helps to reduce anxiety and stimulate blood flow. Increased blood flow flushes inflammation away.

I like this for everything from nerve issues to joint ailments like trigger thumb/finger or other inflamed joints like with an elbow injury from overuse.

Caution though, pepper is a hot oil aromatically and topically.

How to Use Essential Oils for Trigeminal Neuralgia

Since you are working around the face, an abundance of caution is necessary for essential oils for neuropathy of the trigeminal nerve.

Essential oils are potent both positively strong in that they are powerful healing elements and negatively strong as there are dangers to using them incorrectly.

The primary method of essential oils use to help with neuropathy of this nerve is going to be topical and aromatic. This is for both anxiety and pain, such as you would use for managing myasthenia gravis.

If you get essential oils in your eye it can cause permanent damage, so it’s important to have a carrier oil nearby in case of irritation.

You will want to dilute essential oils appropriately for application on the head and neck.

Remember, oil and water don’t mix. And the same goes for essential oils and water.

If you happen to get the essential oil in a tender or sensitive spot, or in your eye adding water will make it worse. I often caution patients about this when treating a dry nose with EOs.

Always reach for your plane vegetable-based care oils, such as, coconut oil, olive oil, grapeseed oil, and the like.

How to Apply Essential Oils for Trigeminal Neuralgia

As mentioned, for the best and safest results we are going to apply these oils topically to the head and neck.

It’s always a good idea to choose your oils based on your symptoms and to not use more than three oils in one treatment.

You can pair these any way you’d like, the best combos for each method are listed below.

Application Methods

Preventative Massage

Even though you might not suffer the symptoms of inflammation in this nerve every single day, it’s important to use essential oils preventatively as well as when an acute attack occurs.

For a preventative massage use frankincense, vetiver, and turmeric diluted in a carrier oil and massage the face as well as the bottoms of your feet four times per day.

You’re going to want to blame this at a ratio of about 4 drops of each oil to 1 tablespoon of carrier oil.

You can increase this by simply increasing the ratio and creating a bottle of this healing blend for you to have on hand.

Remember that essential oils always need to be stored in glass containers, not plastic.

Aromatic Diffuser

An aromatic diffuser sometimes called an essential oil diffuser, is an easy way for you to achieve a long-lasting effect.

The best blend to use in an essential oil diffuser for trigeminal neuralgia is:

4 drops frankincense essential oil
4 drops copaiba essential oil
2 drops turmeric essential oil
1 drop black pepper essential oil

Place in the diffuser with water and diffuse as needed. This gland helps to increase blood flow, reduce pain, and assist in the repair of damaged nerves.

Scent Tent for Anxiety

Anxiety is often a big part of any kind of nerve pain, neuropathy, including trigeminal neuralgia.

Utilizing a scent tent is a simple way to reduce anxiety quickly with breathing and aromatic compounds.

This is great if you don’t have a diffuser or if you need a concentrated scent hit to help ease calm down.

Vetiver is going to be the oil of choice for this. This technique works on the limbic system through your nasal passages and has a direct pathway to your brain to ease anxiety. Here are the steps:

Placing one drop of Vetiver oil in your hand.
Swirl it around to activate it and then carefully cup your nose to inhale through your nose, and slowly exhale through your mouth.
Repeat for 3-4 breaths.

Neuropathy and trigeminal neuralgia can be very scary, and even induced anxiety.

Utilizing essential oils for your pain and inflammation can help you release the fear, release anxiety, and ease your symptoms, even prevent them.

Utilize the combination of methods and oils to help your body heal faster.

On average people need to use these methods for 2 to 3 years before being able to stop their use.

Often healing from trigeminal neuralgia takes some lifestyle changes such as B vitamins and other nutritional fixes to heal from the root cause of this neuropathy.