pain phenomenon Atypical odontalgia : An oral neuropathic

new patient visits a dentist with a six-month history of pain in the left man-dibular posterior teeth that previoustreatments by other dentists havefailed to resolve. She is relatively caries free andhas only occlusal restorations in a few teeth.The pain was first diagnosed by her previousgeneral dentist as pulpitis in the left mandibu -lar permanent first molar, but neither pulpec-tomy nor endodontic treatment relieved thepain. The patient was convinced that the painwas in an adjacent tooth, so her dentist agreedto explore that tooth, leading to more unsuc-cessful endodontic treatment. An endodontistre-treated both teeth and performed apical sur-gery on one of them, but no improvementoccurred. Now the patient is convinced that thepain is emanating from other teeth in theregion, and she is angry with her previous den-tists for not resolving this problem.