The long-term outcome of the original group of 565 newly referred patients diagnosed as idiopathic orofacial pain patients at the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Eastman Dental Institute, London, United Kingdom, during three years period was carried out after eight years from their initial presentation. Sixty six percent of the patients (n=348) were successfully contacted and accepted answering the long-term questionnaire through telephone interview. The results showed that both the symptoms and dysfunction of these idiopathic orofacial pain disorders seems to go into spontaneous remission regardless their initial diagnosis and/or treatment. Nevertheless, patients who received treatment showed better improvement. The results also confirmed a high rate of patients’ satisfaction among the general group of patients, with highly statistically significant differences between the two groups of patients, where 86% of the treatment group as compared to 57% of the dropout patients were fully satisfied with the provided treatment. The results of the current study confirmed that only non-invasive reversible treatment modalities should be used when managing temporomandibular dysfunction and other related idiopathic orofacial pain disorders.
