title: Facial pain.
abstract: Facial pain is a debilitating disorder if left untreated. Too often patients are labelled as having psychopathology when face pain etiology is unclear. These patients are categorized as 'atypical', 'idiopathic' or 'psychogenic'. Idiopathic, when referring to a medical problem suggests that there is something unknown, and does not define the problem. The same applies to terms incorporating the word 'atypical'. It is postulated that the most commonly undiagnosed facial pain conditions include neuropathic and myofascial pains because their pathophysiologies are not well understood. Peripheral and central mechanisms associated with these disorders are used to provide an update of these frequently seen clinical conditions.
authors.affiliation: The Pain Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA.
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Graff-Radford
mesh_terms: D005157:Facial Pain / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans