Accepted

Photobiomodulation (PBM) is reported in many studies to produce dental analgesia without producing thermal damage to tissues. This systematic review aims to assess in vivo studies to support the statement that PBM can produce dental analgesia.

Although there has been increasing interest in the role of systemic cytokines in chronic spinal pain (CSP), the evidence on their potential contribution is still unclear. Therefore, the current study systematically reviewed the evidence on systemic cytokine level differences between people with CSP compared to healthy controls (HCs) and the potential associations with pain severity.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is more than merely a respiratory disease, as it also presents with various neurological symptoms. SARS-CoV-2 may infect the central nervous system (CNS) and thus is neurotropic. However, the pathophysiological mechanism of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated neuropathy remains unclear. Many studies have reported that SARS-CoV-2 enters the CNS through the hematogenous and neuronal routes, as well as through the main host neurological immune responses and cells involved in these responses. The neurological immune responses to COVID-19 and potential mechanisms of the extensive neuroinflammation induced by SARS-CoV-2 have been investigated. Although CNS infection with SARS-CoV-2 was shown to lead to neuronal impairment, certain aspects of this mechanism remain controversial and require further analysis. In this review, we discussed the pathway and mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 invasion in the CNS, and associated clinical manifestations, such as anosmia, headache, and hyposmia. Moreover, the mechanism of neurological damage caused by SARS-CoV-2 may provide potential treatment methods for patients presenting with SARS-CoV-2-associated neuropathy.

Nociplastic pain (NP), as a mechanistic term, denotes pain arising from altered nociception without clear evidence of tissue or somatosensory damage. Fibromyalgia (FM), a prototypical NP condition, incorporates a broad continuum of phenotypes with a distinct neurobiological signature and shared NP attributes. The nociplastic concept may provide a new opportunity for early diagnosis of FM by identifying the characteristic NP features before a state of pain generalization and symptoms clustering. In this approach, even individual symptoms associated with NP features are worthy of attention to denote FM. It may provide a timely diagnosis of FM before clinical progression to a severe and hard-to-manage condition. Furthermore, collecting all various FM phenotypes under the nociplastic concept and not delimiting FM to the only typical presentation allows investigators to identify FM subgroups reflecting potentially distinct pathophysiologic mechanisms and biomarkers. This viewpoint can be served in future studies to develop individualized management. In this review, we postulate a novel approach to early FM diagnosis and management based on NP conceptualization and phenotype recognition. Key Points • FM as a NP condition represents overlapping clinical phenotypes and incomplete presentations especially in early stage of illness. • The mechanistic approach based on the NP features of FM can be implicated in the timely diagnosis and management of FM. • The NP-based approach to FM provides a broader viewpoint beyond FM delimitation to pain generalization and polysymptomatic complaints.