Oral Facial Pain and TMD / TMJ

More than 15% of all Americans suffer from chronic facial pain. This includes headaches, neck aches, ear aches, and tender jaw, and may include a clipping or popping sensation when you open your mouth.

Many aspects of TMD are skeletal in nature. Treatment may require several modalities of care, including appliance therapy, physical therapy, prescription drugs, minor surgical intervention biofeedback training, and even massages. It is common for TMD to contribute to headache problems, especially when it is associated with severe bruxism (tooth grinding). If you would like additional information about this condition, review our resource page.

Neuropathic pain is another aspect of oral facial pain. Some symptoms include:

• Episodes of acute electrical, shock-like pains
• Constant deep facial aches associate with a burning pain
• Toothache pains which no dentist seems to be able to resolve
• Tooth ache pains which are non dental in origin
• Some forms of migraine problems which also produce tooth pain.

Burning mouth syndrome is another example of oral facial pain. Interestingly, burning mouth syndrome is often associated with Lyme disease infections. Some dental conditions can also initiate migraine pain just as menstrual cycles sometimes induce migraine headaches. Neuropathic pain, therefore, creates neuralgias and a variety of pain conditions around the face, mouth and head. It is a very complex condition and requires a great deal of detective work to arrive at a diagnosis. Some of the conditions associated with neuropathic pain conditions include:

• Trigeminal Neuralgia
• Eagles Syndrome
• Burning mouth Syndrome
• Atypical Odontalgia
• Deafferentation Pain
• Chronic Paroxysmal Hemecrania.

The symptoms associated with these conditions are far too numerous to list.

Treatment for these conditions often requires long term medication to relieve and control pain for chronic pain can induce depression when it is present for a long time.