Capsaicin-fighting fire with fire

Abstract

Chronic pain conditions involving the maxillofacial region represent a major health problem and patients with persistent pain are difficult to manage successfully. Most of these conditions are often comorbid with additional health issues. Capsaicin has been studied in various models of pain and neuropathy. Currently, its best known use is as a topical analgesic and anti-inflammatory. Its use as a noxious stimulus offers several benefits and has been used with considerable success in conditions like postherpetic neuralgia, atypical facial pain, musculoskeletal pain etc. Adverse events from capsaicin are mainly at the application site (burning, stinging, erythema), and systemic events are rare. This review highlights the emerging evidence on the use of capsaicin in the commonly encountered orofacial pain conditions.

Keywords

• Capsaicin
• chronic orofacial pain
• resiniferatoxin
• vanilloid receptor