Pain occurs in various forms, involving different sensations, locations, and causations. These factors, among others, help us determine what type of pain you may be experiencing.
The most common form of pain is nociceptive pain. Nociceptive pain occurs acutely, following damage to your body tissues. For example, if you trip and sprain your ankle, the hurt you feel warns you of the harm to your ankle, and in most cases, the level of hurt is appropriately proportional to the level of harm. As the tissue damage is healed, nociceptive pain will subside. It only lasts as long as needed for the tissues to be repaired.
The next pain type is neuropathic pain. While nociceptive pain warns of harm to your body tissues, neuropathic pain warns of harm to your nervous system. It occurs when nerve tissue is damaged, compressed, or inflamed. Damaged nerve cells tend to misfire, reporting abnormal danger signals to the brain. This means the level of hurt you feel may be disproportional to the level of harm. Like nociceptive pain, neuropathic pain will usually subside when the physical damage is healed.
The third pain type is called bioplastic pain. Bioplastic pain is more complex than its counterparts. It involves the production of pain sensations that are disproportionate to, or even completely independent of, physical harm as a stimulus. It is the primary driver of persistent pain, pain lasting more than three months, and our area of expertise here at Painless.
