Patent ID: 8316860

Claim:
A method for treating selected tissue physiologically linked to trigeminal neuralgia, comprising: providing a laser light source that delivers a beam of monochromatic coherent light at about 1064 nm; providing an aiming beam; aiming said aiming beam at the tissue to define a target in the tissue; collimating said beam of monochromatic coherent laser light into a beam of collimated monochromatic coherent light having a cross-sectional area of at least ten cm 2 ; and exposing an area of at least ten cm 2 of said target in the tissue to a depth of at least five millimeters in the tissue with said beam of collimated monochromatic coherent light at a power density of approximately 500 mW/cm 2 for a time sufficient to deliver at least 10 Joules/cm 2 and at least 1,500 total Joules to the tissue per treatment, to thereby treat said trigeminal neuralgia.