Neuralgia-inducing cavitational osteonecrosis
Neuralgia-inducing cavitational osteonecrosis (NICO) is a diagnosis whereby a putative jawbone cavitation causes chronic facial neuralgia; this is different from  osteonecrosis of the jaw. In NICO the pain is said to result from the degenerating nerve ("neuralagia"). The condition is probably rare, if it does exist. Also called Ratner's bone cavity, a neuralgia-inducing cavitational osteonecrosis was first described in dental literature by G V Black in 1920. Several decades later, oral pathologist Jerry E Bouquot took especial interest in NICO. The diagnostic criteria for NICO are imprecise, and the research offered to support it is flawed. The diagnosis is popular among holistic dentists  who attempt to treat NICO by surgically removing the dead bone they say is causing the pain. It has been rejected as quackery by some dentists and maxillofacial surgeons. In its position statement, dated 1996, the American Association of Endodontists asserted that although NICO occur and are treatable in toothless areas, NICO occurrence and treatment at endodontically treated teeth is generally implausible, that the diagnosis ought to be a last resort, and that routine extraction of endodontically treated teeth is misguided. See also
 hopeful evidence
 Health fraud
 Trigeminal neuralgia
 Atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Footnotes

Further reading

Fringe science
Medical controversies
Pain