Trigeminal evoked potentials in patients with trigeminal neuralgia, persistent idiopathic facial pain and pain due to temporomandibular joint diorders

The aim of this study was to analyze retrospektively the trigeminal evoked potentials (TEP's) in patients admitted to a Department of Maxillo-Facial Surgery because of facial pain. There were in total 193 patients, 94 diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia (TN), 34 suffering from persistent idiopathic facial pain (PIFP) and 65 with facial pain due to temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD). In TN, there was a significant delay of the N13 (14.05±1.58ms) and P19 (19.24±2.3ms) waves of the affected side in comparison to the unaffected side (13.42±1.47ms resp. 18,61±1.65ms; p