[Epidemiology of orofacial pain]

Results of international epidemiologic studies indicate that orofacial pain occurs in approximately 10 percent of the adult population. Women are constantly more often affected than men by a ratio of 2:1, on the average. Most studies show a decline of prevalence in older age. Several sources of epidemiologic data about pain in the general population are available in Germany. The German National Health Survey ( n=7,124), besides some smaller studies in specific German regions, provides detailed results about gender- and age-specific prevalence (12 months, 7 days) of orofacial pain.

With generally somewhat higher prevalence figures, results from the National Health Survey are well in the range of findings of international studies. Prevalence of orofacial pain in the total sample was 16 percent (12 months) and 7 percent (7 days), respectively. With 12 months and 7 days prevalence rates of 20 percent and 9 percent, respectively, women were more frequently affected than men (12 percent, 5 percent). Data from the National Health Survey also demonstrate that occurrence of orofacial pain is often associated with pain in other body regions. Of those with orofacial pain during the past 7 days, less than 10 percent reported orofacial pain as the sole pain problem. 43 percent of those with orofacial pain reported pain in 5 or more other localizations. Orofacial pain was less often reported to be the most severe pain problem than pain in other body regions. Yet, comparisons of pain intensity reported by subjects who felt that orofacial pain was the most severe pain problem during the past 7 days with reports of those who indicated that headache, neck pain, or back pain was their most severe pain show a similar distribution of mild, moderate and severe pain in these four localizations. HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE: Health-related quality of life as measured in the National Health Survey by the SF-36 Short Form questionnaire is strongly affected by orofacial pain. Even controlling for gender, age, and number of pains during the past 7 days statistically significant reduction of scores in 5 out of 6 SF-36 subscales was observed in those with prevalent orofacial pain.