A surgical procedure activates the inflammatory process, which is a complex series of biochemical and cellular events involving a variety of inflammatory mediators and algogenic substances. These have vascular and neural effects. The vascular effects are vasodilatation and an increased vascular permeability causing edema/ swelling. The neural effects involve either activating or sensitizing nociceptors and [...]

Acute pain, the pain felt at the moment of injury, results from activation of the nociceptive sensory endings in the affected tissues. This direct nociceptive activation is usually gone within minutes after withdrawal of the noxious stimulus, but the resulting pain often lasts much lon ger—from hours to days. In surgery the nociceptive input (indirect) [...]

Understanding orofacial pain begins with a sound knowledge of the neuroanatomy of the orofacial structures. This section will briefly review the important structures that are basic to the understanding of orofacial pain. Information from the tissues outside the CNS needs to be transferred from the periphery into the CNS and on to the higher centers [...]

INTRODUCTION Undertreatment of postoperative pain is common in surgical patients. It has been reported that approximately 40% of surgical patients suffer from moderate to severe pain during the first 24 hours postoperatively in the general surgical setting. Recently, the Royal College of Surgeons and Anesthetists opened their working party report on pain with the statement [...]