Trigeminal neuralgia and radiofrequency.

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a painful neurological disorder often mistaken for pain of dental origin by the patient and dentist. Dentists should be acquainted with TN to differentiate it from orofacial pain and prevent unnecessary tooth extraction. TN pain alleviating modalities are numerous, yet not uniformly effective. Radiofrequency, known for 25 years, is a minimally-invasive outpatient procedure used for TN when drugs are ineffective. The authors evaluate radiofrequency in trigeminal neuralgia patients referred from the dental office.