Types of Pain – Referred (Read it to find out if you have it) – Part 3 – Medical Condition
Damage or injury to the nerves can cause neuropathic pain. This could be a sharp, burning sensation or numbness and tingling.
Injury or disease can damage the nerve fibres, disrupting or distorting the pain signals the nerves send to and receive from other parts of the body. Sometimes, non-pain stimuli can feel like pain, which can be mild to severe.
Damage to the nervous system affects the senses, so people may have changes in the way they experience touch, temperature, movement, and pressure.
Various health conditions can cause damage to the nerves that leads to neuropathic pain. These include:
- Diabetes – Diabetes causes high blood sugar in the body. Over time, this can damage the blood vessels that supply vital oxygen and nutrients to the nerves. The decrease in oxygen and nutrients impairs nerve function. Up to 50% of people with diabetes will have neuropathy.
- Cancer and cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy
- Neurological disease e.g. multiple sclerosis (MS).
- Neurodegenerative conditions e.g. Parkinson’s disease
- Stroke
- Shingles
- Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a complication of shingles. PHN can affect areas of the body where a shingles rash was present. 10–18% of people with shingles will develop PHN, as well as older adults with shingles are more likely to experience it.
- HIV
- Hansen’s disease (leprosy)
- Guillain-Barre syndrome
- Blood vessel disease
- Vascular malformations
- Autoimmune conditions
- Injury can cause tissue and nerve damage as well as excessive pressure on the nerve tissue. This may occur during surgery or as a result of a serious accident, such as one that leads to a spinal cord injury.
- Excessive alcohol consumption due to the alcohol causing nutritional deficiencies and toxic damage to nerves.
- Medications such as bisphosphonates used for treating osteoporosis, may cause bone pain.
- Bell’s palsy – neuropathy of the facial nerve. This condition causes a sudden weakness or paralysis on one side of the face.
- Trigeminal neuralgia – Compression or damage to the trigeminal nerve in the head can cause trigeminal neuralgia. Stroke, MS, and facial surgery can all cause damage to the trigeminal nerve, causing intense pain in the face from cleaning teeth or washing the face.
- Heart Attack – Some symptoms include as intense ache in the jaw pain.
- Idiopathic neuropathic pain – This term means no clear cause of neuropathic pain.
This is why a medical history is very important to a dentist.
“Never treat a stranger!”
Need an Appointment?
If you’d like to book an appointment with the dentist at Seymour Dental then call us in Dulwich Hill, Sydney on (02) 9564 2397 or
contact us
Next week
What Can Be Done About Referred Pain