Abstract

Dentists are faced daily by many pain conditions. Some are common and easy to deal with such as dental pain and others are more complicated. The pain could originate intraorally and/or extraorally. While diagnosing and treating intraoral pain seems to be an easy task for an experienced dental practitioner, the diagnosis and management of facial pain can be very difficult as presentation of many orofacial pain conditions could overlap and the diagnosis could be complicated by more than one obstacle. An adequate diagnosis could be achieved by a careful history taking and thorough clinical examination. If the origin of pain is clear, the task for the clinician could be achieved easily. However, in the absence of a clear cause or origin of the pain, diagnosis becomes diffuse and extra care should be taken and thinking must overpass the borders of the traditional square. This case offers a brief discussion of an extraoral pain condition that is exacerbated by an intraoral lesion.

Keywords: Orofacial pain; Intraoral pain; Extraoral pain; Aphtous ulcers; Herpes; Varicella zoster; Autoimmune condition