What Is Orofacial Pain and How To Stop It?

What is Orofacial pain?

Orofacial pain (OFP) refers to pain in the jaws, mouth, face, head, and neck. This includes a wide range of structures including teeth, gingiva, bone, muscles, and other tissues. Some pain starts from local factors while other pain may begin as a systemic condition, autoimmune disease, trauma, infection, or other problem. The patient’s first sign that there is a problem may be dental pain, musculoskeletal pain, headache, or other facial pain.

A common element in these pain conditions is the trigeminal sensory complex. Impulses from the head and neck are conveyed by the branches of the trigeminal nerve (the primary sensory nerve of the mouth and face) and the upper cervical spine to the trigeminal sensory nucleus in the brain stem. These impulses may be altered by other input from the trigeminal system and may be amplified or suppressed by modulation within the central nervous system (CNS). Multiple areas of the brain process and interpret this complex input, giving rise to pain sensation and leading to physiologic and adaptive responses, including behavioral changes.

The specialty of Orofacial pain

The diversity and complexity of OFP conditions led to recognition of the need for a specialized field of dentistry. In addition, collaboration among multiple fields of medicine improves care for patients suffering with orofacial pain. 

Orofacial pain became a specialty on March 30, 2020 when the National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards officially recognized Orofacial Pain as the 12^th dental specialty. This landmark recognition was the culmination of many years of dedicated effort by those in academia and clinical practice whose vision for the future of specialty patient care and research continues today. OFP clinicians and patients are the beneficiaries of those efforts.