Fig. 1

clinical evaluation methods of a suspected inferior alveolar nerve injury following an endodontic treatment. (Adopted with permission from: Rosen E. Nerve Injury During Endodontic Surgical Procedures. In: Tsesis I, editor. Complications in Endodontic Surgery: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg; 2014). a Determining the boundaries of the affected area: an explorer is applied with repeated contact points beginning from the outlying non-affected area, toward the internal affected area (arrow). The point in which the patient denotes a change of sensation is registered as the boundary of the affected area; b Two-point discrimination: measuring the gap at which the patient is able of distinguishing two contact points, with a growing distance between the tweezers arms; c Static light touch: the patient response is assessed while a device holding increasingly firmer monofilaments is applied until the monofilament curves; d Brush directional stroke: the patient is asked to verify the direction of the stroke while applying brush strokes of a monofilament (arrows); e Pin prick test using a needle to assess the response: sharp, dull or no sensation; f Thermal discrimination: the patient response is assessed while applying a cotton-tipped applicator sprayed with a topical anesthetic skin refrigerant, or deprived of spray as control