Chronic orofacial pain, cognitive-emotional-motivational considerations: A narrative review

The following material was presented to an esteemed group of colleagues, Chinese physicians and stomotologists, friends and fellow panellists from around the globe at the Core China Conference, Nanjing China. Modern medicine accepts that a dichotomy exists between the mind, psyche and emotions and the rest of the body as if they function independently, having little downward up upward influence, one on the other. However, history teaches a different lesson. The influence of the emotional state of the patient plays a significant role effecting hormonal, neuroimmunological and peripheral modulatory factors influencing the pain experience. This brief discussion reviews the roots of modern Western Medicine in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and how we have come back to the realisation of the mind-body concept in treating the patient as a single entity and not as a collection of systems.