Pharmacological approaches for the management of chronic orofacial pain

Jung,  Jae-Kwang; Byun,  Jin-Seok; Choi,  Jae-Kap

J Korean Dent Assoc > Volume 57(4); 2019 > Article

The Journal of The Korean Dental Association 2019;57(4):233-240.
Published online April 30, 2019.

만성 구강안면통증의 조절을 위한 약물치료적 접근

정재광¹, 변진석², 최재갑³

^¹경북대학교 치과대학 구강내과학교실
^²경북대학교 치과대학 구강내과학교실
^³경북대학교 치과대학 구강내과학교실

Pharmacological approaches for the management of chronic orofacial pain

Jae-Kwang Jung¹, Jin-Seok Byun², Jae-Kap Choi³

¹Department of Oral Medicine, School of Dentistry, Kyungpook National University
²Department of Oral Medicine, School of Dentistry, Kyungpook National University
³Department of Oral Medicine, School of Dentistry, Kyungpook National University

Abstract

Chronic orofacial pain is an umbrella term as a kind of painful regional syndromes to describe unremitting and prolonged pains in orofacial area. It is frequently characterized with the intractable pain without the proportionally corresponding tissue pathology over 3 months. Accordingly, it is difficult or almost impossible to establish the causally oriented treatment strategies in those cases, while multidisciplinary approaches were usually considered for preventing prolonged pain conditions from limiting daily life. Among a variety of approaches, pharmacological approach was clinically based on proper applications of several groups of drugs useful to relieve or alleviate pain. These drugs usually encompass several analgesics, muscle relaxants, anti-depressants, anticonvulsants and so on. Therefore, it is essential for dental clinician to be aware of the many peculiarities of these medications applied for management of chronic orofacial pain disorders. This review focused on the clinical considerations for the careful drug selection and application including dosages and adverse drug reactions.

Key Words: Chronic orofacial pain;Pharmacological approach;