Orofacial quantitative sensory testing benchmark values

Quantitative sensory testing (QST) is a valuable tool in the assessment of orofacial somatosensory dysfunction. Normal values have already been recorded for some parts of the face and mouth, but not for the complete innervation area of the trigeminal nerve. The aim of this pilot study is to inform a large-scale clinical trial generating a database on orofacial quantitative sensory testing benchmark values and to evaluate differences across anatomic subsets within this area.

In ten healthy volunteers, a standardized QST battery was applied to 24 regions (14 extraoral and 10 intraoral) innervated by the trigeminal nerve. Descriptive statistics were applied to compare different regions.