The oral cavity is a portal into the digestive system, which exhibits unique sensory properties. Like facial skin, the oral mucosa needs to be exquisitely sensitive and selective, in order to detect harmful toxins versus edible food. Chemosensation and somatosensation by multiple receptors, including transient receptor potential channels, are well-developed to meet these needs. In contrast to facial skin, however, the oral mucosa rarely exhibits itch responses. Like the gut, the oral cavity performs mechanical and chemical digestion. Therefore, the oral mucosa needs to be insensitive, to some degree, in order to endure noxious irritation. Persistent pain from the oral mucosa is often due to ulcers, involving both tissue injury and infection. Trigeminal nerve injury and trigeminal neuralgia produce intractable pain in the orofacial skin and the oral mucosa, through mechanisms distinct from those seen in the spinal area, which is particularly difficult to predict or treat. The diagnosis and treatment of idiopathic chronic pain, such as atypical odontalgia (idiopathic painful trigeminal neuropathy or post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy) and burning mouth syndrome, remain especially challenging. The central integration of gustatory inputs might modulate chronic oral and facial pain. A lack of pain in chronic inflammation inside the oral cavity, such as chronic periodontitis, involves the specialized functioning of oral bacteria. A more detailed understanding of the unique neurobiology of pain from the orofacial skin and the oral mucosa should help us develop novel methods for better treating persistent orofacial pain.
1. Introduction
Orofacial skin and the oral mucosa protect the body from physical and chemical damage, infection, dehydration, and heat loss. Even though both oral mucosa and facial skin are covered by highly specialized stratified epithelia, the two tissues are structurally different in many ways: hair follicles and sweat glands exist in the skin, while the oral mucosa surrounds the teeth and contains taste buds and minor salivary glands. The oral mucosa is more permeable than skin. Nonkeratinized mucosa, such as the floor of the mouth and the buccal mucosa, is more permeable than other regions of the oral mucosa, and transmucosal drug delivery is under active development
[1]. As the oral mucosa heals after injury faster than skin and without scar tissue, the cellular, molecular, and immunologic differences between oral mucosa and skin have been widely studied, and the oral mucosa has been used as a model for developing methods for scarless cutaneous healing
[2]. Therefore, distinct sensations arising from the oral mucosa and facial skin have drawn much attention
[3][4].
As a portal into the digestive system, the oral cavity is exposed to a dynamic environment featuring mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimuli due to the ingestion and mastication of various foods. The oral mucosa exhibits sensory properties, similar to both facial skin and the gut. Like facial skin, the oral mucosa requires an exquisite level of sensitivity to mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimuli, in order to detect the properties of foods and to prevent the ingestion of harmful materials. Pain from the oral mucosa also modulates jaw movements and masticatory activities
[5]. At the same time, similar to the gut, the oral mucosa needs to be somewhat insensitive to stimuli, in order to resist the mechanical mastication of hard food or to endure the swallowing of hot drinks. When ingested food is perceived to be unpleasant, the food is spit out of the oral cavity for protection. In addition to toxic food materials, multiple etiologies cause acute or chronic pathological pain in the oral cavity. Oral pain critically affects the quality of life, as it degrades vital functions, such as eating and swallowing, especially when the pain is chronic
[6]. Here, we review the characteristics of the chemosensory and somatosensory functions of the oral mucosa, as well as its neurobiological mechanisms, in comparison to those in facial skin. We also review the pathological conditions inducing acute or chronic oral and facial pain and discuss their underlying mechanisms. A better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of oral and facial pain should help in the development of more effective methods for managing the associated conditions, eventually improving the quality of care for patients. Although orofacial pain is derived from different tissues due to a diverse etiology, including an autonomic function (), in this study, we focused on several subtypes of pain from the oral cavity and face that are more difficult to diagnose or treat.
Table 1. Classification overview of the International Classification of Orofacial Pain (ICOP) *.
Table |
Subtype |
1. Orofacial pain attributed to disorders of dentoalveolar and anatomically related structures |
1.1 Dental pain 1.2 Oral mucosal, salivary gland, and jawbone pains |
2. Myofascial orofacial pain |
2.1 Primary myofascial orofacial pain 2.2 Secondary myofascial orofacial pain |
3. Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain |
3.1 Primary temporomandibular joint pain 3.2 Secondary temporomandibular joint pain |
4. Orofacial pain attributed to lesion or disease of the cranial nerves |
4.1Pain attributed to lesion or diseaseofthetrigeminalnerve 4.2 Pain attributed to lesion or disease of the glossopharyngeal nerve |
5. Orofacial pains resembling presentations of primary headaches |
5.1 Orofacial migraine 5.2 Tension-type orofacial pain 5.3 Trigeminal autonomic orofacial pain 5.4 Neurovascular orofacial pain |
6. Idiopathic orofacial pain |
6.1 Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) 6.2 Persistent idiopathic facial pain (PIFP) 6.3 Persistent idiopathic dentoalveolar pain 6.4 Constant unilateral facial pain with additional attacks (CUFPA) |