UNLABELLED Correct diagnosis is the key to managing facial pain of non-dental origin. Acute and chronic facial pain must be differentiated and it is widely accepted that chronic pain refers to pain of 3 months or greater duration. Differentiating the many causes of facial pain can be difficult for busy practitioners, but a logical approach can be beneficial and lead to more rapid diagnoses with...

We developed a unique protocol where transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the motor cortex is performed during positron emission tomography (PET) scan using a μ-opioid receptor (μOR) selective radiotracer, [(11)C]carfentanil. This is one of the most important central neuromechanisms associated with pain perception and regulation. We measured μOR non-displaceable binding potential (...

BACKGROUND Facial pain occurring after traumatic injury of the facial branches of the trigeminal nerve is a medical condition that is often very difficult to treat. Patients are quite disabled by their symptoms and most therapies are ineffective in relieving this pain. Peripheral nerve stimulation has been used as a treatment to provide pain relief for this type of intractable atypical facial p...

AIM To explore the methods for achieving pain relief in patients with atypical trigeminal neuralgia (TN) using microvascular decompression (MVD). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTINGS Retrospective study of 26 patients treated during the years 2000 to 2004. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-six patients in whom vascular compression of the trigeminal nerve was identified by high definition magnetic resonance...

Although pharmacological therapy is the primary treatment modality for trigeminal neuralgia associated pain, ineffective analgesia and dose limiting side effects often prompt patients to seek alternative pharmacological solutions such as interventional nerve blockade. Blockade of the Gasserian ganglion or its branches is an effective analgesic procedure for trigeminal neuralgia, traditionally p...

Acidosis in the skin triggers activation of pain pathways and behaviors indicative of pain in vertebrates. The exception is the naked mole-rat, the only known vertebrate to show physiological and behavioral insensitivity to acid pain in the skin. The goal of the present study was to determine behavioral and physiological responses of this species to airborne acidic fumes, which would be expecte...

The trigeminal reflexes (corneal reflex, blink reflex, masseter inhibitory periods, jaw-jerk) and far field scalp potentials (nerve, root, brainstem, subcortical) evoked by percutaneous infraorbital stimulation were recorded in 30 patients with "idiopathic" trigeminal neuralgia (ITN) and 20 with "symptomatic" trigeminal pain (STP): seven postherpetic neuralgia, five multiple sclerosis, four tum...

Trigeminal pain syndromes such as temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain appear to have a particular potential to affect patients in a devastating manner. Prevalence of trigeminal pain disorders in the US is estimated at 2030x10, at >50-75x10 including headaches/migraine. Neural circuit malfunction and maladaptive plasticity arise from altered primary sensory afferents. We have focused on a nerve c...

Trigeminal neuropathic pain is a facial pain syndrome associated with trigeminal nerve injury. However, the mechanism of trigeminal neuropathic pain is poorly understood. This study aimed to determine the role of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) in heat hyperalgesia in a trigeminal neuropathic pain model. We evaluated nociceptive responses to mechanical and heat stimuli using a ...

Glial cells were investigated to elucidate their involvement in mechanisms underlying oral cancer pain. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC-158) was inoculated into the lower gingiva of male Fisher rats. Pharmacological and immunohistochemical studies were performed to examine the roles played by TRPV1 and TRPV2 expressed in neurons and satellite glia in trigeminal ganglia (TG), and microglia and astr...