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Table 1 Common categories of facial pain

From: Current algorithm for the surgical treatment of facial pain

Headache

   Tension headache

   Migraine and equivalents

Cluster headache

Non-neurogenic pain

   Sinusitis

   TMJ pain

Trigeminal neuralgia

   Idiopathic TN (TN type 1)

   Secondary TN (symptomatic TN)

Atypical trigeminal neuralgia (TN type 2)

Trigeminal neuropathic pain

   Trigeminal injury (unintentional, incidental trauma)

   Postherpetic neuralgia

   Anesthesia dolorosa/trigeminal deafferentation pain (intentional deafferentation)

Other cranial neuralgias and other clinical syndromes

   Glossopharyngeal neuralgia

   Sudden unilateral neuralgiform pain with conjunctival injection and tearing

   Eagle syndrome (elongated styloid process)

   Tolosa-Hunt syndrome (cavernous sinus/orbital apex inflammation)

   Gradenigo syndrome (petrous apex syndrome)

   Ramsay-Hunt syndrome (herpetic infection of nervus intermedius)

   Raeder (paratrigeminal) syndrome

Cancer-related facial pain

Atypical facial pain (somatoform pain disorder)

The list presented here is given for purposes of illustration of the algorithm described in this article. It is by no means comprehensive and the order of conditions does not reflect their incidence or severity.