Diferential diagnosis in atypical facial pain: a clinical study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a sample of patients with atypical facial pain (AFP) in comparison to patients with symptomatic facial pain (SFP).

METHOD: 41 patients with previous diagnostic of AFP were submitted to a standardized evaluation protocol, by a multidisciplinary pain team.

RESULTS: 21 (51.2%) were considered AFP and 20 (48.8%) (SFP) received the following diagnosis: 8 (40.0%) had temporomandibular disorders (TMD); 3 (15.0%) had TMD associated to systemic disease (fibromyalgia, systemic erythematosus lupus); 4 (20.0%) had neuropathy after ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery for petroclival tumor; 2 (10.0%) had Wallenberg syndrome; 1 (5.0%) had intracranial tumor; 1 (5.0%) had oral cancer (epidermoid carcinoma), and 1 (5.0%) had burning mouth syndrome (BMS) associated to fibromyalgia. Spontaneous descriptors of pain were not different between AFP and SFP groups (p=0.82). Allodynia was frequent in SFP (p=0.05) and emotion was the triggering factor most prevalent in AFP (p=0.06). AFP patients had more traumatic events previously to pain (p=0.001).

CONCLUSION: AFP patients had more: a) traumatic events previously to pain onset, and b) emotions as a triggering factor for pain. These data support the need of trained health professionals in multidisciplinary groups for the accurate diagnosis and treatment of these patients.