Nerve Pain Specialist In Stone Mountain, GA

Pain may be classified in three categories: nociceptive pain, neuropathic pain, and nociplastic pain or combinations of the three.

Nociceptive pain is generally a protective pain resulting from injury or potential injury warning the individual to quickly respond to limit the damage.

With chronic pain the body continues to register pain 3 to 6 months after healing. Chronic pain is no longer protective pain and may be from changes in signal processing (nociplastic pain) or nerve damage (neuropathic pain).

In nociplastic pain the signals from the sensory nerves which should not be painful are nevertheless perceived as painful. This pain is the result of amplification of pain signals in the central nervous system (CNS). Neuropathic pain and neuroplastic pain often occur together.

Neuropathic pain may be episodic or continuous and can come from peripheral nerves or mediated in the CNS. Often both peripheral and central sensitization are involved in persistent neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain may be experienced as a combination of spontaneous attacks of pain (no apparent trigger) or pain that is evoked by touch. The sensations may be from hypersensitivity of peripheral nerves. Hypersensitive nerves may register a light touch as painful (allodynia) or a painful stimulus that is much more painful than expected (hyperalgesia). Neuropathic pain disorders may also be from decreased sensation (numbness). Confusingly, some neuropathic pain may be experienced as both numbness and increased pain.

Some types of Neuralgia include:

• Trigeminal neuralgia
• Glossopharyngeal neuralgia
• Nervus intermedius neuralgia
• Atypical odontalgia (phantom tooth pain)
• Secondary painful trigeminal neuropathies
• Posttraumatic trigeminal neuropathic pain
• Trigeminal neuropathy from an acute herpes zoster infection
• Postherpetic neuralgia (occurring after an acute outbreak of shingles or other herpes)
• Trigeminal neuropathic pain from another disorder such as multiple sclerosis
• Persistent idiopathic facial pain

Neurodegenerative diseases may also cause central pain.

• Telosa-Hunt syndrome (eye pain and paralysis of eye muscles)
• Complex regional pain syndrome (persistent burning pain with exquisite sensitivity to light touch or painful stimuli, neurogenic inflammation, and swelling.

Burning mouth syndrome

Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a poorly understood phenomenon characterized by a continuous burning sensation of the tongue, lips, palate or inside cheeks for over three months. It is experienced by 4 to 15% of the population, mostly in post-menopausal women. BMS is a primary pain condition. This means that to be diagnosed all other potential causes must be eliminated. Treatment of BMS is usually symptomatic and may involve topical or oral medications. Orofacial pain specialists are uniquely qualified to treat primary BMS.