Facial pain. II. A prospective survey of 1052 patients with a view of: character of the attacks, onset, course, and character of pain

Abstract

The material, definition, delimitation, and classification of facial pain, general data, hereditary conditions, and previous diseases have been discussed in a preceding study. According to the character of the attacks the material has been classified into TTN = Typical Trigeminal Neuralgia (1/4), ATN = Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia (1/4), and NNFP = Non-neuralgiform Facial Pain (1/2). The typical Trigeminal Neuralgia is a transitory, shooting pain, well defined. The other two groups are less well defined. The patients come to be treated by specialists 1-5 years after the onset of pain. The oral cavity is often perceived as the origin of the pain. A systematic examination shows that demonstrable pathological diseases in the masticatory organs are rarely connected with the pain condition. Dental treatment has provided poor results. Facial pain is a very constant phenomenon which does not- or only to a negligible degree--change over an agelong course. In the present material 8 characters of pain are used: Shooting-cutting, boring, squeezing-pressing, throbbing-hammering, dull, burning-smarting, prickling-sticking, paraesthetic. With the exception of a few cases of apoplexy and herpes zoster there is no pain reaction which can be referred to on an aethilogical basis.