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Chronic Orofacial Pain

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Abstract

Chronic orofacial pain (COFP) is an umbrella term used to describe painful regional syndromes with a chronic, unremitting pattern. This is a convenience term, similar to chronic daily headaches, but is of clinically questionable significance: syndromes that make up COFP require individually tailored diagnostic approaches and treatment. Herein we describe the three main categories of COFP: musculoskeletal, neurovascular, and neuropathic. For many years, COFP and headache have been looked upon as discrete entities. However, we propose the concept that because COFP and headaches share underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, clinical characteristics, and neurovascular anatomy, they should be classified together.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Oral Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah, POB 12272, Jerusalem, 91090, Israel

    Rafael Benoliel & Yair Sharav

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  1. Rafael Benoliel
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  2. Yair Sharav
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Correspondence to Rafael Benoliel.

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Benoliel, R., Sharav, Y. Chronic Orofacial Pain. Curr Pain Headache Rep 14, 33–40 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-009-0085-y

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