Neuroanatomical Signatures of Acute and Chronic Orofacial Pain

The more fully we understand chronic pain, the more adept we as providers will be able to deliver effective care to the patient with TMD. There have been significant advances in our current understanding of the neuroanatomical and neurochemical elements that underlie chronic pain, but the picture of how it is established and maintained is by no means complete. This chapter presents a short synopsis of our current appreciation of pain in general as well as a discussion of the research that contributes to the basis of our contemporary knowledge and theories that help us understand TMD-associated chronic pain