Patient Experiences of Orofacial Pain in Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding Patients Experiences of Orofacial Pain in Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome
IRAS ID
244022
Contact name
Abisola Asuni
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 26 days
Research summary
Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) is an immune system condition typically causing dry eyes, a dry mouth, and tiredness, with some patients also suffering from other immune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. It therefore causes and increases the risk of different types of muscular and nerve-based pain, which can last a lifetime, with no cure.
Due to a dry mouth, dental decay and gum disease leading to “toothache” is more frequent which makes a perfect circular path whereby oral dryness can necessitate invasive dental treatment, which may involve intentional “controlled” nerve damage to teeth or their supporting structures (root canal therapy or extraction of the tooth).
Persistent nerve-based pain can develop after root-canal therapy or extraction in up to 2/100 cases in the general population. We think this may be higher in pSS patients given their increased risk of muscular and nerve-based pain. Dental treatments also involves prolonged mouth opening, which can cause or make worse muscle-based facial pain. Little to nothing is known about how common these different types of mouth and face pain are, or their impact in pSS patients, shown in a recent systematic review.
This study will involve qualitative patient interviews to explore experiences and perceptions of orofacial pain and dental care with a purposive sample of pSS sufferers registered on UK Primary Sjogren’s Syndrome Registry (UKPSSR).
REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0060
Date of REC Opinion
25 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion