Facial pain. II. A prospective survey of 1052 patients with a view of: character of the attacks, onset, course, and character of pain.

The material, definition, delimitation, and classification of facial pain, general data, hereditary conditions, and previous diseases have been discussed in a preceding study. According to the character of the attacks the material has been classified into TTN = Typical Trigeminal Neuralgia (1/4), ATN = Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia (1/4), and NNFP = Non-neuralgiform Facial Pain (1/2). The typical Trigeminal Neuralgia is a transitory, shooting pain, well defined. The other two groups are less well defined. The patients come to be treated by specialists 1-5 years after the onset of pain. The oral cavity is often perceived as the origin of the pain. A systematic examination shows that demonstrable pathological diseases in the masticatory organs are rarely connected with the pain condition. Dental treatment has provided poor results. Facial pain is a very constant phenomenon which does not- or only to a negligible degree--change over an agelong course. In the present material 8 characters of pain are used: Shooting-cutting, boring, squeezing-pressing, throbbing-hammering, dull, burning-smarting, prickling-sticking, paraesthetic. With the exception of a few cases of apoplexy and herpes zoster there is no pain reaction which can be referred to on an aethilogical basis.