OROFACIAL PAIN

Pain seriously impairs the lives of millions of people around the world. The clinical management of orofacial pain is a primary concern of doctors everywhere. The satisfactory management of surgical pain may be considered an accomplished act. The same however cannot be said concerning clinical or pathological pain. As a clinical symptom pain is an experience that cannot be shared. It is wholly personal belonging to the sufferer alone. Different individuals sensing identical noxious stimulation feel pain in different ways and react at different levels of suffering. Upon the dentist rests a great burden of responsibility for the proper management of pains in and about the mouth face and neck. The dentist must therefore be competent to differentiate between pains that stem from dental oral & masticatory sources & those that emanate elsewhere. The dentist's responsibility in managing pain problems of the mouth & face is two-fold the initial responsibility being DIAGNOSTIC followed by THERAPEUTIC. Although everyone has experienced pain and described it as sharp burning aching cramping dull or of a throbbing nature.