Craniofacial - Pain

What is it?
Where does it appear?
How does it affect you?

Craniofacial pain is any form of pain that is felt in the area of shoulders and above. This includes the neck, throat, shoulders, face, jaws and skull.   The cause may not be in the area where the pain is felt. So this includes “referred pain”.

Pain Defined

Pain: An unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerve stimulation. Pain may be contained to a discrete area, as in an injury, or it can be more diffuse, as in disorders like fibromyalgia. Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors

What causes it?  Signals are generated inside ‘receptors’ and the signal sent to the brain via a complex pathway that has ‘gates’ and doors that shepherd the signal. Pain is generated in a surprisingly wide number of ways including some nerves having the ability to conduct pain-causing chemicals backwards down their insides and flood an adjacent area. Yes they can completely reverse their normal pathway. There are a very large number of chemicals and methods of producing them, interpreting them and controlling them. There is a complex Brain-stem pathway that decides what to do with certain pain messages before sending them on to the higher centres. So all pain signals don’t result in a pain response. 

Your personal response will also affect it. If you are playing a contact sport it doesn’t hurt as much as when you are tired. The reaction of those around you too will affect it. If you get a lot of sympathy, the body exaggerates the pain and if you are told that “it’s not that bad” then that is exactly what it “is”. Often the concept of 'Big-boys don’t cry' extends to a patient with real pain and that person learns to suppress it. Hiding or ignoring pain like this can lead to a significant drain on your metabolism and make recovery to full health more difficult. Pain is real and has a survival message. Ignoring real pain is not a good idea.