Facial presentations of primary headache disorders

BackgroundMany patients with mid-face or lower face craniofacial pain are diagnosed, based on accompanying signs and symptoms and features other than location, as either atypical migraines or atypical TACs. Distinguishing features of headache disorders as a cause of facial pain include the temporal pattern of pain, associated symptoms including light and sound sensitivity and nausea, cranial autonomic symptoms, and the lack of local triggering among others.ResultsAn intraoral neurovascular pain has been observed, and was termed neurovascular orofacial pain (NVOP). Due to its location, and signs imitating dental pulpitis, it has great diagnostic and therapeutic importance for differentiating NVOP from dental pathology. The hypothesized mechanism is neurogenic inflammatory activation within the space confined by dentine around the dental pulp, expressed in strong paroxysmal pain and typical allodynia to cold foods.ConclusionFacial manifestations of headache disorders and primary facial pain disorders share ...