Patient: The patient was a 56-year-old female, suffering from severe burning pain in the left maxillary alveolar area. The pain was initiated by periodontal curettage under no local anesthesia. No abnormal local findings in dental X-ray images and no abnormal central nervous system findings in brain magnetic resonance images were observed. Extraction of the tooth temporarily abated her pain, however the pain recurred gradually. Since the observed signs and symptoms of the patient agreed well with the diagnostic standard for continuous neuropathic pain (atypical alveolar pain) of Graff-Radford & Solberg (1992), medications (tricyclic antidepressant, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), anxiolytics, topical application of capsacin cream) and supportive psychological therapy have been administered continuously. To measure symptom severity over a long term, daily amounts of taken NSAID and anxiolytics were recorded continuously by the patient in a simple table diary for 7 years. As a result, the total amount of the drugs per month gradually decreased with the passage of time.
Discussion and conclusions: Clinical evidence regarding the prognosis of continuous neuropathic pain in the orofacial region is obviously insufficient, making it difficult to inform such patients of their prognosis of the disorder on the basis of clinical evidence. In this report, we have plotted the total amount of drugs taken per month by the patient as a good reference for the pain severity and the results clearly suggest that pain severity decreased with time. This kind of information may help both clinicians and patients for case-based explanation of the disorder.