Does acute intraoral pain alter cutaneous sensibility?

Cutaneous sensibility was tested in eight patients suffering from acute postoperative intraoral pain. Tactile-, cold-, warm-, and heat-pain thresholds as well as reaction time to cold pulses were unaffected by the presence of pain. However, reaction time to warm pulses was increased in the painful a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry neurosurgery and psychiatry, 1988-08, Vol.51 (8), p.1032-1036
Main Authors: Hansson, P, Ekblom, A, Lindblom, U, Marchettini, P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Female
Humans
Male
Mechanoreceptors - physiopathology
Medical sciences
Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes)
Nervous system as a whole
Neural Inhibition
Neurology
Nociceptors - physiopathology
Pain, Postoperative - physiopathology
Reaction Time - physiology
Skin - innervation
Thermosensing - physiology
Tooth Extraction
Tooth, Impacted - surgery
Trigeminal Nerve - physiopathology
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Summary:Cutaneous sensibility was tested in eight patients suffering from acute postoperative intraoral pain. Tactile-, cold-, warm-, and heat-pain thresholds as well as reaction time to cold pulses were unaffected by the presence of pain. However, reaction time to warm pulses was increased in the painful area on the day of pain compared to a non-painful state. The findings are discussed in relation to (1) functional convergence of different sensory fibres on central neurons (2) the phenomenon of diffuse noxious inhibitory controls and (3) secondary hyperalgesia. The observed effect of clinical pain on the warm pathway could be explained as an intrasegmental noxious inhibitory effect.
ISSN:0022-3050
1468-330X
DOI:10.1136/jnnp.51.8.1032