Psychological factors associated with orofacial pains

This article develops the case for why trigeminal pain is a unique and challenging problem for clinicians and patients alike, and provides the reader with insights for effective trigeminal pain management based on an understanding of the interplay between psychologic and physiologic systems. There is no greater sensory experience for the brain to manage than unremitting pain in trigeminally mediated areas. Such pain overwhelms conscious experience and focuses the suffering individual like few other sensory events. Trigeminal pain often motivates a search for relief that can drain financial and emotional resources. In some instances, the search is rewarded by a treatment that immediately addresses an identifiable source of pain; in other cases, it can stimulate never-ending pilgrimages from one health provider to another.