It is caused by lesions of the nervous system, peripheral or central, and it involves sensations, whether spontaneous or evoked, such as burning, wetness, itching, electric shock, and pins and needles.
[citation needed] People with dysesthesia can become incapacitated with pain, despite no apparent damage to the skin or other tissue.
[citation needed] Cutaneous dysesthesia is characterized by discomfort or pain from touch to the skin by normal stimuli, including clothing.
[citation needed] Scalp dysesthesia is characterized by pain or burning sensations on or under the surface of the cranial skin.
[citation needed] Phantom pain refers to dysesthetic feelings in individuals who are paralyzed or who were born without limbs.
Prakash et al. found that many patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS), one variant of occlusal dysesthesia, also report painful sensations in other parts of the body.
Marbach suggested that occlusal dysesthesia would occur in patients with underlying psychological problems (such as schizophrenia) after having undergone dental treatment.
More recently, two studies have found that occlusal dysesthesia is associated with somatoform disorders in which the patients obsess over the oral sensations.
However, the reviewers note that no method exists for determining sensor nerve thresholds, and so sensory perception in the mouth is often measured by interdental thickness discrimination (ITD), or the ability to differentiate between the sizes of objects (thin blocks) placed between teeth.
In one study, occlusal dysesthesia patients showed greater ability to differentiate these thicknesses than control, healthy individuals, but these differences were not statistically significant.