Orofacial Pain and Oral Medicine

Hypnic headaches also known as alarm clock headaches are a rare type of primary headache that occurs during sleep and tend to wake the person up, seen particularly in elders. These headaches only occur when a person is asleep (Sleep Foundation, 2023). Amongst patients...

Eagle's syndrome, also known as stylohyoid syndrome, styloid syndrome, is caused by an elongated or disfigured styloid process, or a calcified stylohyoid ligament (Egierska D et al 2021). The abnormality or elongation leads to orofacial and cervical pain that are...

People with a primary headache disorder, such as migraine or tension-type headache, might be experiencing undesirable pain secondary to the intake of acute headache medication. This is called a medication overuse headache (MOH) or transformed headache. MOH is a...

Biofeedback is a way for an individual to self-regulate their physiologic response to pain with the help of a feedback system. Patients can receive auditory, visual, or tactile feedback information about how their body is reacting (ie. muscle tension or heart rate)....

Central sensitization is an amplification of neural signaling within the central nervous system that elicits pain hypersensitivity. (Woolf, 2011). It is a pathological phenomenon that represents both structural and functional changes in the CNS and leads to increased...

Blepharospasm [aka, blinking eye] is a focal dystonia involving the orbicularis muscle causing repeated and abnormal movements of the eyelids. Patients with blepharospasm may be characterized by various types of involuntary activation of periocular muscles, and not...

For those of you fortunate enough not to have heard of Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS), let me introduce you to this debilitating pain condition. BMS is characterized by a burning sensation in the tongue and/or other oral mucosal areas. It is often associated with dry...

Idiopathic Condylar Resorption (ICR), aka, “cheerleaders’ syndrome", is an uncommon aggressive degenerative joint disease that most frequently occurs in teenage girls during the pubertal growth spurt. In patients with ICR, a decrease in the mandibular ramus height...

Herpes zoster is a neurocutaneous disease that is caused by the reactivation of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) from a latent infection of dorsal sensory or cranial nerve ganglia following primary infection with VZV earlier in life. (Schmader et al 2007). Major risk...

Though the masseter muscle doesn’t have the same claim to fame as say biceps, it plays an important role in our ability to function on a daily basis. Humans have two masseter muscles, one on each side of our face. The masseter muscles are a set of powerful muscles...

If the patient experiences a sharp pain in the back of the neck, close to the nuchal line, and it radiates to the parietal and frontal areas, the clinician should consider the possibility of occipital neuralgia. Occipital neuralgia (ON) is a primary headache disorder...

Most of us have either heard of migraines, known someone who has had migraines, or better yet, has had the misfortune of being stricken by migraines ourselves. Migraines are a type of debilitating headache that doesn’t get much press. Everyone has heard of it, but no...

I’m not embarrassed, I'm not drunk, and I’m not frostbitten, so why are my ears bright red? Most of us have probably never heard of something that doctors refer to as the “red ear syndrome”. Don’t worry. Many doctors have never heard of it either. I certainly had...

What is Neuropathic pain? Neuropathic pain is pain initiated by the nervous system either from a lesion, trauma, or dysfunction. It can occur for no reason at all or can be secondary to other causes such as dental procedures or central nervous system pathology....

What Does CGRP Stand For? Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a neuropeptide (neurotransmitter of the nervous system) discovered over 30 years ago. It has specific receptors located both centrally and in the periphery. CGRP is present in trigeminal neurons and...

The evaluation of the neck provides useful information for the dental practitioner by identifying conditions that might contribute to the oral health of the patient and the appropriate function of the masticatory system. At the same time, it constitutes a triage,...

A headache can be a small effect of a bigger primary headache disorder. These disorders include migraines, tension type headaches, cluster headaches, or medication-overuse headaches. There are treatments both with and without the use of physical medicine. Treatment...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, specifically the brain and spinal cord. This disease affects women twice the amount as men. Onset commonly occurs between ages 20 and 50 years. There are many negative...

The idea that sympathetic pain exists is based on clinical findings seen in a small subset of patients suffering from neuropathic pain. Sympathetic pains occurs when the pain is clearly dependent on activity in the sympathetic nervous system. This is often referred to...

Over 1.5% of the population experiences Medication Overuse Headaches (MOH). This type is the most common migraine-like headache. People with MOH experience pain over 15 days each month. MOH ranges higher in women (2.6%) and people over 50 years of age (nearly 5%)....

Motor Neurectomy Motor neurectomy involves identifying the select branches of the motor nerve and perform radiofrequency lysis of the motor nerve itself. This will denervate a portion of the motor nerve and cause a resulting atrophy of the muscle. The area of the...

High Condylectomy & Temporal Fascia Graft In cases where the jaw opening ability is severely compromised due to ankylosis, it is necessary to perform surgical treatment of the TM joint. This involves a high condylectomy (removing approximately 4 mm on top of...