Management of orofacial pain can only be
effective if the correct diagnosis is reached
and may involve referral to secondary
or tertiary care. The focus of this article
is differential diagnosis of orofacial pain
(Table 1) rather than available therapeutic
options.
The underlying cause of the
majority of facial pain presentations in
primary care will be of a dento-alveolar
origin. These will not be discussed further
here but their differentiating features are
summarized in Table 2.