The prevalence is high: some reports estimate that around 20% of the population is affected by some sort of find more orofacial pain (Lipton et al. 1993; Macfarlane et al. 2002). While most of these will be dental, over 5% can be chronic, with higher incidence in older patients (Zakrzewska 2010). It is also possible that some chronic cases are overlooked

by the general practitioner or dentist Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical who usually is the first contact for many patients (Kitt et al. 2000; Koopman et al. 2009; Zakrzewska 2009). Nondental conditions which specifically affect the trigeminal nerve include temporomandibular disorders (TMD), burning mouth syndrome, and, most commonly, trigeminal neuralgia (TN; Kitt et al. 2000; Sessle 2005; Koopman et al. 2009, 2011). Woda and colleagues have proposed a classification of chronic orofacial pain conditions into three broad groups, based on the symptoms present. The pain types were grouped either as (1) “neuralgias” Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical which included TN and posttraumatic neuralgia, (2) “neurovascular and tension type” – including migraines, cluster headache, and tension type headaches, and (3) “persistent idiopathic orofacial pain” (Woda

et al. 2005). The last group included stomatodynia (also known as burning mouth syndrome), arthromyalgia (TMD), and atypical facial pain. The first group clearly can be characterized as Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical “neuropathic” pain while in Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the last group, although most of the disorders (such as TMD) have an inflammatory component, others are more difficult to characterize and may not be strictly “inflammatory” (see below). In many cases, orofacial pain may be idiopathic (might arise without any obvious trigger or identifiable cause) – such as burning mouth syndrome and atypical facial pain (Zakrzewska 2009) – however, some conditions can result from indentified pathologies, such as herpes

(postherpetic neuralgia) or multiple sclerosis (responsible for some cases of TN; Cruccu et al. 2009), Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical as well as trauma to facial structures and cancer (Kitt et al. 2000; Watson 2004). In general, the symptoms are often severe and disturbing and frequently become not responsive to therapy, sometimes needing invasive surgical intervention (Kitt et al. 2000; Zakrzewska 2009; Astemizole Koopman et al. 2011). It is clear that there is a need for more effective pharmacological agents. Scope of review This review intends to present a comparative summary of the currently available pain models of the orofacial area in the commonly used laboratory rodents. In the last two decades, research into pain mechanisms has shown considerable progress; however, most of the basic science research in this field has been done in the limbs and trunk, due to possibilities of uncomplicated surgical manipulations and the ease of applying stimuli to sciatic-innervated areas for behavioral observations (Le Bars et al. 2001).