Orofacial neuralgia. Diagnosis and treatment guidelines

Patients with facial pain, without overt dental disease, are often seen in both medical and dental practice. The differential diagnosis includes (a) cluster headache, in which patients have severe unilateral pains lasting 30 to 120 minutes that respond to verapamil, corticosteroids or lithium; (b) migraine, in which attacks are longer and are often accompanied by nausea and visual disturbance, and can be managed using anti-inflammatory analgesics, with or without metoclopramide, or sumatriptan, although frequent attacks are best suppressed by continuous propranolol or pizotifen; (c) trigeminal neuralgia, knifelike unilateral pains usually responsive to carbamazepine; and (d) temporal arteritis, a steadier pain very responsive to corticosteroids. There is no evidence that continuous 'idiopathic facial pain' is a result of malocclusion (i.e. the way in which the teeth fit together), and its aetiology remains obscure, although there is some biochemical evidence linking it to depression. Many patients respond to simple analgesia and firm reassurance from the physician, although antidepressant therapy (e.g. nortriptyline or dothiepin) is often of great value.