Differential diagnosis of facial pain

G.Sh. Rayanova¹, L.R. Akhmadeeva²

¹Clinic of Neurology and Pediatrics LLC, Ufa

²Bashkir State Medical University, Ufa

The review describes the main types of facial pain and clinical diagnosis principles, taking into account the pathophysiological patterns. According to the terminology of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), facial or orofacial pain (prosopalgia) is pain or other unpleasant sensations localized on the anterior surface of the head above the cervicus area to the otic area outwards and superciliary ridge upwards. Due to the morphological structure complexity of the face, orofacial pain has different pathophysiological patterns. The main thing in facial pain diagnostics is a careful history taking. Paraclinical diagnostic methods are not major and in most cases do not reveal organic brain lesions. Neuroimaging methods can be recommended to differentiate a specific cause (tumour, multiple sclerosis, et c.), in the case of increased pain syndrome, prosopalgia changing nature, as well as in the absence of a positive therapeutic effect. Taking into account the numerous data on the prosopalgia comorbidity with heterogeneous mental pathology for the diagnosis and treatment of facial pain, a multidisciplinary approach should be recommended with mandatory consultation with a dentist, neurologist, neurosurgeon, otolaryngologist, ophthalmologist, psychiatrist or psychotherapist.

Keywords: facial pain, prosopalgia, orofacial pain, trigeminal neuralgia, non odontogenic pain syndromes.

For citation: Rayanova G.Sh., Akhmadeeva L.R. Differential diagnosis of facial pain. RMJ. 2019;9:16–19.