Relationship between oral surgical and endodontic procedures and episodic cluster headache.

OBJECTIVE We sought to evaluate the possible relationship between oral surgery and endodontic procedures and the subsequent appearance of cluster headache (CH) in 54 patients. STUDY DESIGN This study included 54 patients diagnosed and treated for episodic CH. The characteristics of pain, the extractions, and the endodontic procedures performed in the same or a contralateral quadrant were recorded and analyzed by using the chi-square test. RESULTS Prior tooth extraction or endodontics had been performed in the pain-affected quadrant in 58% of cases and in the contralateral quadrant in 33%. The differences between quadrants were statistically significant. After the onset of pain, extractions were performed in the affected quadrant in 44% of patients. CONCLUSIONS Although the appearance of pain after dental extraction could suggest a relationship between damage to the nerve supply and the development of CH, the possibility that dental extraction and endodontics may have been performed in response to CH-related pain must also be taken into account. With respect to the differential diagnosis of pain, it is easy for CH to be misdiagnosed as dental pulp pain.