I have just completed and web-published another demograhics analysis for our website. I am now in the process of tracking down mainstream dental and medical journals, for an attempt at publication in front of an audience of medical professionals. The journey of pain is sometimes not well respected even by those who are trained to treat patients. Your experience as patients can help to better inform doctors. Feel free to print out the following and offer it to your doctor.
Abstract
A demographic analysis was performed on 202 consecutive member registration records accumulated between February 4 and March 18, 2012 at an on-line social networking website focused on trigeminal neuralgia and trigeminal neuropathic pain ("Living With TN": http://www.livingwithtn.org). This analysis was conducted as a consistency check on an earlier and larger assessment of patient demographics and treatment outcomes. [1] Age and gender demographics in this limited sample were consistent with the earlier large-scale report. Patient outcomes of diagnosis and treatment by dental practitioners were also consistent.
Additional analysis of the limited sample assessed the average length of time between first emergence of chronic face pain, versus definitive diagnosis by a medical practitioner. In 110 patient records where an explicit time to diagnose could be extracted, about one-third reported a definitive diagnosis in less than one month, and one-fifth reported suffering more than one year before their pain was medically characterized. Among 81 records where time to diagnose was not explicit or the diagnosis had not yet been made, at least four patients had suffered facial pain for several years without resolution.
[1] Richard A Lawhern, "Demographics of Neurological Face Pain at a Social Networking Website", Web published at http://www.livingwithtn.org/page/who-gets-tn, March 16, 2012.
Both the limited consecutive sample and the large-sample study may be read on my website. I have also cross-posted an HTML version of the large-sample study here as "Who Gets TN" -- a sub-tab under "Face Pain Info" on our site menus.
Regards all,
R.A. "Red" Lawhern, Ph.D.
Resident Research Analyst, LwTN