Gaurav Sharma, Vathsala Naik, Leelakshi Mh, Raghunand Sindhe J

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Orofacial pain which affects approximately 6% of the populationtoday, is one of the most difficult chronic pain conditions to treat and can be caused by any number of events. Word descriptive qualities of neuropathic pain that patients report are typically sharp, shooting, burning, electric, or lancination. Neuropathic pain can occur secondarily to injury of the central nervous system, but it occurs most commonly in association with a primary lesion or dysfunction to the peripheral nervous system. These injuries can be iatrogenic or can be due to trauma, tumour compressing peripheral nerves, toxins used for chemotherapy, metabolic (diabetes) and viral diseases (Herpes Zoster), nerve compression and inflammation following disc herniation.Hence the present systematic review aims to highlight a new wave in management of orofacial pain by Neurotrophin Blockers, thus defining a new era in the field of orofacial treatment planning and management. AIM OF THE STUDY: Todetermine the significance of targeting the Neurotrophins in order to completely eliminate Neuropathic Orofacial Pain.RESEARCH QUESTION:Will the “Neurotrophin Blockers” be an ultimate solution to the Neuropathic Orofacial Pain in completely curingit? MATERIALS AND METHODS:With the Cochrane collaboration taken as a source for authenticated scientific research data, 75 articles were selected having undergone a randomized control trial. Out of these, the articles were screened, and finally, 14 articles (studies) were chosen which met the criterion (Fig-1) for systematic review. RESULT & CONCLUSION:Due to its individual character, the treatment of Orofacial Pain is extremely difficult as it involves various molecular pathways. The current pharmacotherapy of available drugs has a generalized nature and acts only on the temporal pain symptoms rather than being targeted towards the several mechanisms underlying the generation and propagation of pain. Despite over fifty years of research there has been no valid treatment over time and the neuropathic pain can be classified as an incurable disease without treatment.Although the complexity and diversity of orofacial pain has posed many challenges, the new modality of pain treatmentviz the Neurotrophin Blockers (in the form of HumanisedMonoclonal antibodies produced by Hybridoma Technology) bears the potential to provide fast and accurate results thus enhancing the prognostic outcome.