Neuralgias of Orofacial Region

Neuralgia is a severe painful condition, most common being trigeminal neuralgia and patients often visit multiple clinicians complaining of the orofacial pain. A thorough understanding of the epidemiologic and etiologic aspects of dental, musculoskeletal, neurovascular, and neuropathic orofacial pain conditions is essential to the practice of evidence-based dentistry. So it is essential that oral physicians recognize the disease and diagnose it correctly for the patients to receive appropriate referral and therapy for this relatively treatable condition. Recent investigations have provided an explosion of knowledge regarding pain mechanisms and pathways and an enhanced understanding of complexities of many ramifications of the total pain experiences. Therefore, it is mandatory for the oral physicians to develop the necessary clinical and scientific expertise on which he / she may recommend diagnostic and management approaches. Optimum management can be achieved only by determining an accurate and complete diagnosis and identifying all of the factors associated with the underlying pathosis on a case specific basis.