History of facial pain diagnosis

PREMISE: Facial pain refers to a heterogeneous group of clinically and etiologically different conditions with the common clinical feature of pain in the facial area. Among these conditions, trigeminal neuralgia (TN), persistent idiopathic facial pain, temporomandibular joint pain, and trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TAC) are the most well described conditions. CONCLUSION: TN has been known for centuries, and is recognised by its characteristic and almost pathognomonic clinical features. The other facial pain conditions are less well defined, and over the years there has been confusion about their classification.