Orofacial Pain
Chronic oral, facial and/or cranial pain is a common problem, and appropriate
diagnosis and management are a challenge for most health care professionals.
Most often, individuals first seek the care of dentists because of the
pain’s localization in the mouth and surrounding structures.
Orofacial pain (OFP) disorders comprise a wide range of conditions that
include musculoskeletal, inflammatory, infectious, neurovascular, neoplastic,
psychiatric, metabolic, endocrine, autoimmune and neuropathic etiologies.
In fact, evidence has shown that a systematic approach is required and
simply applying the catch-all label “TMJ” to otherwise unidentified
craniofacial pains will likely produce a misdiagnosis.
As part of the Hoag Neurosciences Institute’s Pain Program, the
Oral and Facial Pain Center specializes in the treatment of a variety
of disorders, including:
- Head pain
- Facial pain
- TMJ disorders
- Trigeminal neuralgia (TGN)
- Burning mouth syndrome
- Unresponsive tooth-site pain
- Orofacial movement disorder