Hi everyone out there, in this post we shall go through one of the most significant topics in the field of dentistry which is the orofacial pain and its differential symptoms among its subtypes.
Orofacial Pain definition according to IASP( International Association for Study of Pain):
Orofacial Pain is the unpleasant sensory and emotional experience arising from an injury to the body indicating that a stimulus disturbing the normal state of health of tissues associated with potential or actual tissue damage.
Orofacial pain is a branch dentistry concerned with preventing, evaluating, assessing, diagnosing, managing, treating and rehabilitating pain disorders involving the "mouth and face".
Orofacial Pain Classification According to Location
Orofacial pain is classified into three parts based on location;
1- Neuritis
2- Psychogenic
3- Neuralgia
1- Neuritis
It's the inflammation of the nerves at the peripheral or the terminal nerve endings induced or caused by toxic( such as heavy metal intoxication, hot water, etc), chemicals such as sulphuric acid, microbial( HZ, HSV, Streptococcus bacteria) or even nutritional.
Its usually perceived as burning sensation during the inflammatory response and changes.
2- Neuralgia
Neuralgia is a paroxysmal pain felt along the course of the nerves, it could be felt due to trigger on the nerves in question due to tumour pressure, or inflammation of the surrounding tissues. The major one that is usually encountered in dental practice is the trigeminal neuralgia.
3- Psychogenic
Psychogenic pain as the name suggests are pain of bizarre pattern and symptoms with no objective and observable clinical cause. The kind of pain does not follow any kind of anatomical distribution of nerves or structures whatsoever. It doesn't interfere with mastication during eating and sleeping as well.
Orofacial Pain Classification according to Origin
Orofacial Pain can be divided into five (5) different components by origin. They are named as follows;
1- Somatic pain
2- Neurogenous pain
3- Psychogenic pain
4- Referred Pain
5- Vascular Pain and Headache
Somatic Pain
Somatic pains are caused by noxious stimulation in the normal neural components.
"Somatic pain is the type of pain you feel in your skin, muscles, joints, and bones. It can feel like a gnawing, aching, or cramping. Some people describe somatic pain as "sharp.""Source
Somatic pain is generally of two types which are as follows: superficial and deep. They are differentiated according to where the pain originates in the body system which be either superficial or deep seated.
1- Superficial skin or few millimetres surface pain:
Pains that occurs on the skin and few millimetres into the body tissues. Examples of such pains include;
i- Thermal pain
ii- Chemical pain or burn
iii- Mechanical pain
iv- Superficial infections or superficial ulcerations secondary to systemic conditions such as diabetes, hormonal imbalance and so on.
v- Systemic conditions can also create atmosphere for exaggerated superficial pain such as in blood dyscrasias, drug-induced, leukaemia and so on.
Most superficial pain are known to be burning and pricking in sensation.
2- Deep pain
Deep pains are pains that deeply seated and located in the body within the somatic tissues and are usually dull and throbbing in sensation. Sometimes these pains could be referred if there are related nerves conducting across them and some other tissues.
Examples of deep pain includes pains of the muscles, bone, joint and so on.
That's all as regards this post. More info would be discussed in the subsequent ones and thanks for your usual unalloyed and undiluted support and attention.
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