The common symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia type 1: the pain is described by most patients as this sharp pain. Some patients describe it like an ice pick behind the eye or a lightning bolt or a flash of pain. It usually affects the forehead, the cheek, or the jaw with the most common area being either the cheek region or the jaw region or something in between. It truly is like a flash of pain which lasts either seconds, maybe a few minutes, but rarely longer than that.