Facial Pain
All too often we find that patients with serious facial pain have multiple overlapping pain disorders - Don Nixdorf DDS
HWN Suggests
Seeking a Diagnosis
Symptoms related to facial pain can be complex. They may not fall into any one specific category... Commonly, people are misdiagnosed as having a dental or other issue, only to find that they have a neuropathy. Until you have an accurate diagnosis, you may be getting unnecessary and even harmful treatment, and the case of pain is not being addressed.
Articles of Interest
Atypical Face Pain
If your face hurts without a clear cause, it could be atypical facial pain (AFP). AFP is unexplained, chronic (ongoing) pain in your face. It might affect your teeth, jaw, cheek or ear. AFP can be hard to diagnose. Depression, stress or anxiety can make AFP worse. It’s usually treatable with medication or psychological therapy.
Chronic Facial Pain: Trigeminal Neuralgia, Persistent Idiopathic Facial Pain, and Myofascial Pain Syndrome—An Evidence-Based Narrative Review and Etiological Hypothesis
Clinical medicine places us between the certainty of diseases described and defined with clear language, with no uncertainty about the criteria for diagnosis, and the reality of everyday ambiguity. Facial pain places us between the realm of our comfort zone of certainty and the sea of ill-defined disorder.
Facial Pain Comes to Light
From a throbbing tooth or aching jaw to a pounding migraine, pain in the oral and facial region—known as orofacial pain—afflicts 5% to 12% of the population.
Facial pain is invisible, yet life altering for many
Tamara Doege felt hope slipping away after three years of debilitating facial pain. The pain had become acute following brain surgeries to address a bone malformation.
What It's Like to Live with One of the World's Most Painful Disorders
Trigeminal neuralgia has been compared to searing, stabbing facial pain, or "a hot rod being stabbed in your eye while your face is being burnt off with chemicals."
With A Nerve Freed By Surgery, A Facial Pain Ends
Trigeminal neuralgia is rare, affecting about one out of every 15,000 people. But when it does strike, it can be devastating, says Dr. Neil Martin, the chair of neurosurgery at UCLA.
Resources
Facial Pain Association
Our mission is to serve those with neuropathic facial pain, including trigeminal neuralgia, through support, education, and advocacy.
Facial Pain Research Foundation
Funding and supporting groundbreaking research to END Trigeminal Neuralgia and related neuropathic facial pain.
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
The most common cause of facial pain is a group of conditions called temporomandibular joint and muscle disorders (TMJDs). These disorders cause recurrent or chronic pain and dysfunction in the jaw joint and its associated muscles and supporting tissues.
