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| Some medical and dental professionals consider NICO a controversial diagnosis. Other dentists believe NICO is the culprit in many facial pain syndromes and that these painful conditions can be cured by jawbone curettage (scraping and removing infected tissue). They point to studies that show a high success rate for jawbone curettage. Others speculate that minor trauma from extractions, root canal and other dental procedures are common initiators of NICO but believe this only happens in people already susceptible because of a pre-existing blood clotting disorder. Signs & Symptoms The pain felt is constant and is often burning and cramping, much like atypical facial pain symptoms. NICO can cause "referred pain" in that the neuralgia-like symptoms are "referred" to other parts of the face, intraoral cavity and head. Diagnosis & Tests It is difficult to diagnose this problem as the pain symptoms often are similar to other conditions such as Myofascial Pain Disorder (MPD), Temporal Mandibular Joint (TMJ) problems, atypical facial pain, trigeminal neuralgia, phantom toothache, or headache. |
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