title: Oral pre-trigeminal neuralgia pain: clinical differential diagnosis and descriptive study results.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To better quantify oral pre-trigeminal neuralgia (PTN) symptoms, attempt to identify PTN symptoms that could reliably differentiate between PTN and odontogenic tooth pain, and determine whether an anesthetic test would reliably differentiate these disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was accomplished through a survey of symptom recall for 49 trigeminal neuralgia patients who had PTN tooth and/or gum pain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The variability of oral PTN symptoms, factors that worsened or improved them, and how dental anesthesia affected them, explain the reason for variations found in the literature. A throbbing pain quality is not in the literature, but present for 63% of respondents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  No specific PTN symptom would reliably differentiate PTN from odontogenic tooth pain. The results also suggest that an anesthetic test would not be totally reliable for differentiating these disorders. A protocol is provided that should help practitioners identify the tooth pain source when there is no dental pathology.
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005882:Gingival Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors; D014098:Toothache / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014277:Trigeminal Neuralgia / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local
keywords: Pretrigeminal neuralgia,; Survey; Tooth pain,; Trigeminal neuralgia,