Table 3.

Differential diagnosis between trigeminal neuralgia (TN) with concomitant facial pain and other trigeminal neuropathic conditions

Features	TN with concomitant persistent facial pain	Idiopathic neuropathic pain*	Neuropathic pain with identifiable cause†	Persistent idiopathic facial pain
Precipitating factor	No	No	Yes (trauma, viral, inflammatory)	No (possible stress)
Pain location	Extra/intraoral	Extra/intraoral	Extra/intraoral	Extraoral
Laterality and trigeminal distribution	Unilateral Dermatomal	Unilateral Dermatomal	Unilateral Dermatomal	Often bilateral Non-dermatomal
Pain severity	Severe–very severe	Mild to severe	Mild to severe	Mild to severe
Other sensory symptoms	None	Yes	Yes	None
Cutaneous/intraoral triggers	Present	Yes, but rare	Present	None
Effective treatments	Carbamazepine	Tricyclic antidepressants, gabapentinoids	Tricyclic antidepressants, gabapentinoids	Unclear

*Includes persistent dentoalveolar pain, atypical odontalgia, phantom tooth pain in which the pain location is intraoral only.

†This term mainly includes painful post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy and post-herpetic neuropathic pain.