title: Quantitative sensory testing in trigeminal traumatic neuropathic pain and persistent idiopathic facial pain.
abstract: The objective of this article was to investigate, with a systematic protocol of quantitative sensory testing, patients with persistent idiopathic facial pain (PIFP) and others with trigeminal traumatic neuropathic pain (TTN) compared to controls. Thirty patients with PIFP, 19 with TTN, and 30 controls were evaluated on subjective numbness and dysesthesia and with a systematic protocol of quantitative sensory testing for thermal evaluation (cold and warm), mechanical detection (touch and pinpricks for mechanical pain), superficial pain thresholds, and corneal reflex. We found that PIFP and TTN had numbness and dysesthesia higher than controls (p<0.001 and p=0.003), and that in both of them mechanical pain by pinpricks detection was abnormal intra and extra orally at the mandibular branch (p<0.001). Cold, warm, and tactile detections and pain thresholds were similar among the groups. Corneal reflex was abnormal in TTN (p=0.005). This study supports neuropathic mechanisms involving pain processing in PIFP and that the criterion on absence of sensorial variations in PIFP should be revised.
authors.affiliation: School of Arts, Science and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo SP, Brazil. silviadowgan@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Silvia R D T de
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Siqueira
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siviero
authors.forename: Fábio K
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Manoel J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Teixeira
authors.forename: José T T de
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Siqueira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005157:Facial Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D061221:Trigeminal Nerve Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*