The aim of this study was to examine atypical odontalgia (AO) patients with extraoral quantitative sensory testing (EQST) and an intraoral mucosal cold test.
The highest rate of abnormality was L0G2 (no somatosensory loss with gain of mechanical somatosensory function), which is consistent with Baad-Hansen's report in atypical odontalgia patients [18].
There are specific oral conditions that rarely present extra orally such as atypical odontalgia and burning mouth syndrome whereas others will present in both areas.
In atypical odontalgia the pain is very clearly localised to the dentoalveolar tissues either where teeth are still present or have been lost.
L0G2 was also seen as the most frequently occuring score in patients with trigeminal neuralgia and atypical odontalgia in studies by Maier et al. [19] and Baad-Hansen et al. [42], respectively.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the analgesic effect of lidocaine in a double-blind, controlled multi-center study on patients with atypical odontalgia (AO) – a possible orofacial neuropathic pain condition.
IFP was diagnosed in 124 patients (17 men, 107 women; atypical facial pain, n=16; atypical odontalgia, n=108), with a mean age of 54.8 ±14.4 years and a mean duration of illness of 50.7 ± 62.8 months.
They have been successfully used in Sluder's neuralgia, sphenopalatine maxillary neuralgia, facial neuralgia, sympathetic neuralgia, post-traumatic atypical facial pain, atypical odontalgia, pain from midline granuloma, herpetic keratitis, hemifacial headache, paroxysmal hemicrania, nasal pain, hemicrania continua and trigeminal neuropathy.
In the differential diagnosis, other diseases that might provoke similar AN symptoms must be excluded, such as cervicalgia, TMD, migraine, continuous hemicrania, otitis, trigeminal neuralgia, atypical facial pain, "red ear syndrome", affection of the parotid gland, temporal arteritis and odontalgia.
Interestingly, this result corresponds with the score most frequently found in patients with trigeminal neuropathic pain and atypical odontalgia in a mainly Caucasian population [7, 18], but was much less common in other non-trigeminal neuropathic pain conditions [7].
Recently an international group of experts proposed the use of the term persistent dentoalveolar pain disorder [36] to encompass persistent pain without local disease (possible other pseudonyms include atypical odontalgia, phantom tooth pain).
