Neuropathic orofacial pain is a general term employed to describe a number of clinical syndromes, which may be spontaneous or triggered by local trauma or systemic disorders. Symptomatically these painful syndromes may be episodic or continuous and are often difficult to distinguish from dental pathology. In the present article, we review the diagnosis, pathophysiology and therapeutic approaches to trigeminal and glossopharyngeal neuralgias, orofacial pain associated with herpetic infection, persistent idiopathic facial pain (previously termed atypical facial pain), post-traumatic orofacial neuropathy and neuritis.