title: Clinical study of patients with persistent orofacial pain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  [corrected] To evaluate a sample of patients with persistent facial pain unresponsive to prior treatments.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hospital records of 26 patients with persistent facial pain were reviewed (20 female and 6 male).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients were classified into three groups according to their presenting symptoms: a)Group I, eight patients (30.7%) with severe, diffuse pain at the face, teeth or head; b)Group II, eight patients (30.7%) with chronic non-myofascial pain and; c)Group III, ten patients with chronic myofascial pain (38.4%). We find 11 different diagnoses among the 26 patients: pulpitis(7), leukemia(1), oropharyngeal tumor(1), atypical odontalgia(1), Eagle's syndrome(1), trigeminal neuralgia(4), continuous neuralgia(1), temporomandibular disorders (9), fibromyalgia (2), tension-type headache(1), conversion hysteria(2). After the treatment program all patients had a six-month follow-up period with pain relief, except the patient with tumor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The wide variability of orofacial pain diagnosis (benign to life-threatening diseases) indicates the necessity to reevaluate patients presenting recurrent pain that is refractory to the usual treatments.
authors.affiliation: Dentistry Division, Hospital das Clínicas, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. jtts@uol.com.br
authors.forename: José Tadeu Tesseroli de
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Siqueira
authors.forename: Hui Ching
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Cibele
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nasri
authors.forename: Silvia Regina Dowgan Tesseroli de
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Siqueira
authors.forename: Manoel Jacobsen
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Teixeira
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heir
authors.forename: Luís Biela S
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Valle
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005157:Facial Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011671:Pulpitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013705:Temporomandibular Joint Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014277:Trigeminal Neuralgia / Q000175:diagnosis