Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct;47(10):1212-1221.
doi: 10.1111/joor.13058. Epub 2020 Aug 2.

Signs and symptoms, quality of life and psychosocial data in 1331 post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy patients seen in two tertiary referral centres in two countries

Fréderic Van der Cruyssen  1   2 , Frederik Peeters  1   2 , Thomas Gill  3 , Antoon De Laat  4   5 , Reinhilde Jacobs  2   6 , Constantinus Politis  1   2 , Tara Renton  3
Affiliations

Signs and symptoms, quality of life and psychosocial data in 1331 post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy patients seen in two tertiary referral centres in two countries

Fréderic Van der Cruyssen et al. J Oral Rehabil. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy (PTN) is a disturbance of function or pathological change of the trigeminal nerve branches following trauma and has an important impact on patient's quality of life (QoL).

Objectives: To provide diagnostic data on PTN and illustrate differences in aetiology, injured nerve, pain distribution, sensory profile and QoL between PTN subgroups.

Methods: 1331 patients with painful or non-painful PTN were retrospectively reviewed in two centres, extracting demographic data, time and cause of trauma, clinical findings including signs and symptoms, basic neurosensory testing, imaging modalities, treatments, and QoL or psychosocial assessment.

Results: More females were represented (70%) than males. The inferior alveolar nerve was most frequently damaged (60%) followed by the lingual nerve (28%). Wisdom teeth removal was considered the main cause (48%). Pain was reported in 63% of patients and pain frequency increased with age without clinically significant gender differences. Numbness was reported in 50% of PTN patients. Neurosensory testing showed larger affected dermatome involvement in persistent injuries, with no differences between the non-painful and painful PTN groups. Patient clustering indicated different sensory profile distributions when stratified according to aetiology or affected nerve branch. High interference with lifestyle was reported (78%), and patients suffering from painful PTN had worse QoL and psychosocial outcomes.

Conclusion: Patients with painful PTN had different clinical profiles and lower QoL scores than those with non-painful PTN. Sensory profiles may provide important prognostic and therapeutic information; however, more research is needed to assess the clustering procedure and link these clusters to therapeutic guidelines.

Keywords: diagnosis; neuropathic pain; quality of life; trigeminal nerve; trigeminal nerve disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no financial or non‐financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Symptom distribution. Most frequently involved area is situated in the mental area
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Clusters of sensory phenotype frequency and overlap for post‐traumatic trigeminal neuropathic pain. Sizes of circles are to scale; overlaps are not to scale
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Distribution of the three clusters within the injured nerve branch and within aetiologies
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Self‐reported interference of lifestyle of Post‐traumatic trigeminal neuropathy patients and stratified for subdomains indicating degree of interference
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Quality of life domains and self‐perceived health state measured by the EQ5D‐5L questionnaire. Comparison between transient and persistent nerve injuries (A) as well as non‐painful versus painful post‐traumatic trigeminal neuropathy (B). NS, not significant. Open‐ended boxes indicate a value of zero with standard deviation of zero. Standard deviations are indicated
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Caissie R, Goulet J, Fortin M, Morielli D. Iatrogenic paresthesia in the third division of the trigeminal nerve: 12 Years of clinical experience. J Can Dent Assoc (Tor). 2005;71(3):185‐190. - PubMed
    1. Orofacial T, Classification P. International classification of orofacial pain. Cephalalgia. 2020;40(2):129‐221. - PubMed
    1. Baad‐Hansen L, Benoliel R. Neuropathic orofacial pain: facts and fiction. Cephalalgia. 2017;37(7):670‐679. - PubMed
    1. Nixdorf D, Moana‐Filho E. Persistent dento‐alveolar pain disorder (PDAP): working towards a better understanding. Rev Pain. 2011;5(4):18‐27. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Macrae WA. Chronic post‐surgical pain: 10 years on. Br J Anaesth. 2008;101(1):77‐86. - PubMed