Facial Pain

The aim of the registry is a multicenter, prospective long-term data collection of patients suspected neurovascular conflict and referred for possible microvascular decompression (Jannetta procedure). The registry relies exclusively on routinely collected clinical data, which are gathered in a standardized and privacy-compliant manner as part of everyday clinical practice. By systematically compiling this information across multiple centers, valuable insights into the effectiveness, potential side effects, and long-term outcomes of this surgical treatment can be gained. The registry will serve as a foundation for future scientific analyses and is intended to help answer relevant research questions regarding the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia based on solid evidence.

This randomized clinical trial evaluates the effects of photobiomodulation with a superpulsed diode laser (810 + 980 nm) on orofacial pain and tension-type headache in children and adolescents. Sixty participants will be assigned to receive active PBM or sham therapy over eight sessions. Pain and anthropometric variables will be assessed.

Chronic pain affects one in four Canadians, leading to severe personal and societal costs. Over 70% of chronic pain patients report memory difficulties and fear having unexpected pain. Abnormalities in brain structures associated with emotion and memory, including the hippocampus and amygdala, can be affected by chronic pain. Understanding the relationship between chronic pain, structural brain changes, and cognitive functioning will lead to improved diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes in chronic pain disorders. In this project, the investigators will use advanced brain imaging techniques that assess the structure and function of the brain along with cognitive assessments to examine the overlap between chronic pain and emotion-memory processes. The study team will conduct the study using an excellent model of chronic pain-trigeminal neuralgia, a severe form of facial pain that responds well to surgical treatment. Brain images and cognitive data will be collected from participants before and after surgical treatment for pain. This information will be analyzed and compared with age- and sex-matched healthy individuals. This study will be the first to thoroughly investigate relationships between brain structure and function, cognition (memory, emotion), and promises to impact our understanding of chronic neuropathic pain conditions.