Treatment of chronic pain in dentistry using anticonvulsants

• Autor(a) principal: DOURADO,Daniele Coelho
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: GONÇALVES,Edielson Felipe e Silva, MELO FILHO,Reinan de Oliveira, POLTRONIERI,Luana Ceccagno, DOURADO,Viviane Coelho, FRIGO,Lúcio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: RGO - Revista Gaúcha de Odontologia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1981-86372016000400447
• topic: Anticonvulsants; Chronic pain; Dentistry; Pain

ABSTRACT Pain can be characterized as a sensorial and emotional experience in an unpleasant and personal way. It is usually associated with real tissue damage and may be caused by the involvement of chemical and physical agents or by subjective and psychological aspects. This study aimed to review the literature regarding the use of anticonvulsants in the treatment of chronic pain, the most used drugs, the efficacy of each one of them, the pros and cons of their use and the pathologies associated with chronic pain. Orofacial pains are considered complex and multifactorial and often do not respond well to treatment with common analgesics. The carbamazepine is used since the 60s, but their prolonged use can alter liver function. Phenytoin when consumed by more than three months cause gingival enlargement and clonazepam reduces patient symptomatology up to70%. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of life of patients suffering with chronic pain, the anticonvulsant drugs were introduced to the pharmaceutical market. As this problem is extremely subjective and individual, there must be scientific evidence to correctly perform the diagnosis and treatment of this condition.