ABSTRACT
Referred pain from specific trigger points can radiate to normal teeth as well as from the mouth to the temporomandibular joint. If that is suspected, palpate the lateral pterygoid muscle. Ligamentous pain syndromes can include the hyoid bone syndrome, Eagle’s syndrome, stylomandibular and sphenomandibular ligamentous pain, and capsular ligament pain. Carotidynia is an episodic, throbbing, deep, dull neck pain with occasional neck swelling. The pain over the neck may project to the ipsilateral side of the head. It is self-limiting, usually less than two weeks. Carotidynia is thought by many to be nothing more than a unilateral neck pain associated with local tenderness that can be secondary to a number of vascular and nonvascular etiologies. The disorder is explicable by compression of the second cervical root in the atlantoaxial space on sharp rotation of the neck. Corticosteroids are the treatment of choice: a 10-day course of prednisone may be satisfactory.
