Dentistry

Abstract

Orofacial Pain: A Review

Ragini Gupta, Vinay Mohan, Pooja Mahay and Pramod Kumar Yadav

Orofacial pain is the field of dentistry devoted to the diagnosis and management of chronic, complex, facial pain and oromotor disorders. This specialty in dentistry has developed over a number of years out of the need for better understanding of a group of patients who somehow were not clearly suffering from dental pain disorders. Orofacial pain represents a significant burden in terms of morbidity and health service utilization. It includes very common disorders such as toothache and temporomandibular disorders, as well as rare orofacial pain syndromes. Many orofacial pain conditions have overlapping presentations, and diagnostic uncertainty is frequently encountered in clinical practice. Our profession has realized the importance of basic knowledge and differential diagnosis in order to manage these patients properly. This modification in the approach has caused several changes in education as well as in clinical activities. This paper aims to discuss the importance of basic knowledge to perform successful management.