Facial neuralgia associated with recurrent herpes simplex.

At least seven cases of facial neuralgia associated with recurrent herpes simplex have been reported in the medical literature. This condition has not been reported in the dental literature. A case of facial neuralgia associated with recurrent herpes simplex in a 34-year-old woman at varying intervals over a 20-year period is reported. Tension applied to the commissure on the right side of the patient's mouth during routine dental procedures can cause the neuralgia to develop, and she reports having undergone extraction of the permanent right mandibular first molar at the age of 15, when a similar neuralgia was present.