Oro-facial pain

Oro-facial pain is commonly acute, and of dental origin. There are numerous other less common, but clinically identifiable types of oro-facial pain which can be attributed to an organic cause, and which usually respond to the appropriate treatment. There is a small proportion of oro-facial pain problems, however, which are chronic and which are found to have a psychogenic element of greater or lesser magnitude, and treatment is aimed at psychological or psychiatric therapy. The interim results of an ongoing study of chronic oro-facial pain of psychogenic origin are described in this presentation.