Chronic Orofacial Pain Management: A Narrative Review of Pharmacological and Promising Therapy
Abstract
Chronic orofacial pain is a multifactorial stressful condition. It devastates patients’ lives and depletes medical and dental services.Assertion of a particular effective pharmacological treatment is difficult due to psychological involvement and variation of painetiology. Proper diagnosis plays a crucial role in determining the proper therapeutic agent. Pharmacological therapy is the first-linetreatment of chronic orofacial pain with multiple drug classes to consider. This review aimed to focus on temporomandibular jointrelatedchronic orofacial pain as a common dental practice type of chronic pain and trigeminal neuralgia. Highlighting their effectiveand available pharmacological treatment and promising therapies. For mild-to-moderate pain, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugsare preferred; however, pain chronicity requires another class that tends to modulate neurology- and psychology-associated factors.Common in-practice drugs are antidepressants and anticonvulsants. In most instances, the combination of different pharmacologicaltreatments with a diverse mechanism of action is required for better pain control and reduced monotherapy-related adverse reaction.Opioids should reserve to severe pain and as dual therapy. Palmitoylethanolamide is a promising nutritional therapy that needs furtherresearch to establish its effect and safety.
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