Summary
Patients can present with pain of odontogenic or non-odontogenic origin, arising from the facial area, temporomandibular joints, ear, eyes, pharynx and larynx. Often they may be complaining of pain from their teeth. The dilemma the clinician faces is finding the correct origin of this pain whereby an effective treatment will provide relief. Patients with neuropathic orofacial pain may present to the clinician with a persistent, severe pain resulting in multiple endodontic procedures being instigated or worse still extractions recommended with no resolution of symptoms. The literature has demonstrated that the incidence of pain following endodontic treatment is between 3 and 6 % in the absence of reliable clinical and/or radiographic evidence of persisting disease. Management of orofacial pain is best by a multidisciplinary approach, and often the dentist is involved from the very beginning. Where patient toothache symptoms are not reproducible or clinical signs do not correlate, then a referral to an endodontist should be sought.
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Patel, B. (2015). Pain of Odontogenic and Non-odontogenic Origin. In: Endodontic Diagnosis, Pathology, and Treatment Planning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15591-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15591-3_1
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