Ketamine Infusion Therapy for Chronic Orofacial Pain in the San Francisco Bay Area
If facial pain has reshaped how you eat, speak, or sleep, you already know how exhausting traditional treatment can feel. Medications stop working. Procedures bring temporary relief. The pain returns. For patients across the San Francisco Bay Area living with chronic orofacial pain, ketamine infusion therapy offers a different approach, one designed to interrupt the pain pathway itself rather than mask its symptoms.
At MH Dental Anesthesia, ketamine infusion therapy for chronic orofacial pain is delivered in a medically supervised setting by Dr. Matthew Hurd, a dual board-certified Dentist Anesthesiologist with more than two decades of clinical anesthesia experience. The goal is straightforward: help your nervous system reset, reduce central sensitization, and restore comfort that traditional therapies have not been able to provide.
What Is Ketamine Infusion Therapy for Chronic Orofacial Pain?
Ketamine infusion therapy is a low-dose intravenous treatment that targets the way your brain and spinal cord process persistent facial pain signals. MH Dental Anesthesia provides ketamine infusion therapy for chronic orofacial pain in the San Francisco Bay Area for patients whose conditions have not responded adequately to standard care.
Ketamine works by blocking NMDA receptors in the central nervous system. These receptors play a major role in the way long-standing pain becomes "wired in" through a process called central sensitization. By interrupting that signaling pattern, low-dose ketamine can reduce pain intensity and, in some patients, produce relief that lasts well beyond the infusion itself.
Each session is short, structured, and continuously monitored. Treatment is provided in a setting designed for safety and calm, not in a busy clinic chair.
What Conditions Can Ketamine Infusion Treat?
Chronic orofacial pain is a category of complex pain conditions affecting the face, jaw, mouth, and surrounding nerves. Patients often describe burning, electric, stabbing, or aching sensations that interfere with daily life.
Ketamine infusion therapy is most often considered for patients with:
- Trigeminal neuralgia, including cases that no longer respond to first-line medications
- Atypical or persistent idiopathic facial pain
- Burning mouth syndrome
- Post-traumatic neuropathic pain after dental procedures, oral surgery, or facial injury
- Complex regional pain syndrome involving the face or jaw
- Refractory neuropathic pain in patients who cannot tolerate side effects of long-term oral medications
Not every facial pain condition responds the same way to ketamine. Published clinical research has shown that some neuropathic facial pain patterns respond more reliably than others, which is why thorough evaluation matters before any infusion is scheduled.
If you are unsure whether your condition fits, you can request a consultation with MH Dental Anesthesia to review your medical history with Dr. Hurd directly.
How Does Low-Dose Ketamine Help Chronic Facial Pain?
Low-dose ketamine reduces chronic facial pain by quieting the overactive nerve signaling that keeps pain "turned on" long after the original injury or trigger has resolved.
When pain becomes chronic, the nervous system can shift into a state of heightened sensitivity. Pathways that should have calmed down stay active. Signals that should feel mild feel intense. This is central sensitization, and it is one of the reasons standard pain medications often stop working over time.
Ketamine acts on this exact mechanism. By blocking specific receptors involved in pain amplification, low-dose ketamine therapy gives the nervous system an opportunity to reset. For patients with chronic orofacial pain, that reset can translate into reduced pain intensity, fewer flare ups, and better tolerance of normal daily activities such as chewing, talking, and sleeping.
Ketamine is not a cure. It is a tool, and like any tool it works best as part of a broader plan that may include your dentist, neurologist, orofacial pain specialist, or primary physician.
Who Is a Candidate for Ketamine Infusion Therapy?
You may be a candidate for ketamine infusion therapy if you have a diagnosed chronic orofacial pain condition and conservative treatments such as oral medications, nerve blocks, physical therapy, or oral appliances have not provided adequate relief.
Candidates usually share a few common factors. You have lived with persistent facial pain for months or longer. You have tried at least one or two standard treatment paths. You are otherwise medically stable enough to receive intravenous medication in an office-based setting. You have transportation arranged for after the infusion, since you should not drive the same day.
Certain medical conditions require additional review before ketamine can be considered safely, including uncontrolled high blood pressure, severe cardiac or liver disease, elevated intraocular or intracranial pressure, pregnancy, and some psychiatric histories. Dr. Hurd performs a careful medical review at the consultation stage to determine whether ketamine infusion therapy in the San Francisco Bay Area is the right fit for you, or whether another approach would serve you better.
What to Expect During a Ketamine Infusion
Knowing what happens at each stage takes a lot of the unknown out of the experience. Here is how the process works at MH Dental Anesthesia.
- Pre-infusion consultation. Dr. Hurd reviews your medical history, current medications, prior treatments, and pain pattern. You receive clear pre-procedure instructions, including fasting guidelines and which medications to continue or pause.
- Arrival and setup. On the day of your infusion, you are welcomed into a calm, monitored treatment space. Hospital-grade equipment tracks your heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and breathing throughout the session.
- The infusion. A small intravenous line delivers low-dose ketamine over approximately 45 minutes to one hour. You remain awake but relaxed. Some patients describe a floating or dissociative sensation. Dr. Hurd remains present and continuously monitors you for the full session, with no subcontracted provider stepping in or out.
- Recovery and discharge. After the infusion ends, you are observed in a quiet space until you are stable and ready to leave. You may feel temporary fatigue, mild dizziness, or perceptual shifts that resolve within a few hours. A responsible adult drives you home.
- Follow up. Some patients respond meaningfully after a single session. Others benefit from a series of infusions. Dr. Hurd works with you and your referring providers to decide on the right cadence for your condition.
You can read more about the practice's approach to patient safety on the MH Dental Anesthesia about page.
Is Ketamine Infusion Therapy Safe?
When administered in a medically supervised setting by a trained anesthesia provider, low-dose ketamine infusion therapy has a strong safety profile. Continuous monitoring, hospital-grade equipment, and an experienced clinician on site are the three factors that matter most. National consensus guidelines on intravenous ketamine for chronic pain, developed jointly by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, and the American Society of Anesthesiologists, support these standards.
Dr. Matthew Hurd is dual board-certified by the American Dental Board of Anesthesiology and the National Dental Board of Anesthesiology. He earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at UCSF School of Dentistry, followed by a residency in Dental Anesthesiology at The Ohio State University. He has more than 20 years of pre-hospital and emergency medicine experience and has performed extensive sedation and anesthesia work in both hospital and office-based settings. He also serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco.
That depth of training is the difference between an infusion delivered safely and one that overlooks important medical detail. Every infusion at MH Dental Anesthesia is personally administered and monitored by Dr. Hurd from start to finish.
You can also review additional clinical detail on the dedicated ketamine infusion therapy service page before your visit.
Why Choose a Dentist Anesthesiologist for Orofacial Pain?
Chronic orofacial pain sits at the intersection of dentistry, neurology, and pain medicine. A dentist anesthesiologist brings something distinctive to that intersection: deep familiarity with the anatomy and nerves of the face and mouth, combined with advanced training in intravenous anesthesia and patient monitoring.
Most ketamine clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area focus primarily on mood disorders. MH Dental Anesthesia is built around dental and orofacial care. That focus matters when your pain is centered in the trigeminal nerve, the jaw, or the oral cavity. It also matters if you have had prior dental procedures, oral surgery, or implants that may be related to your pain pattern.
Patients also benefit from MH Dental Anesthesia's broader scope. If your treatment plan eventually includes restorative dental work or oral surgery, adult dental anesthesia and deep sedation for adult procedures are available through the same trusted provider, in the same Bay Area office-based setting.
Schedule a Consultation in the San Francisco Bay Area
Living with chronic orofacial pain affects more than your face. It changes how you sleep, how you eat, how you work, and how you connect with the people around you. Ketamine infusion therapy will not be the right answer for every patient, but for many it offers a meaningful step forward when other treatments have stalled.
MH Dental Anesthesia provides ketamine infusion therapy for chronic orofacial pain in the San Francisco Bay Area, led personally by Dr. Matthew Hurd, a dual board-certified Dentist Anesthesiologist with decades of clinical experience. To learn whether you are a candidate, request a consultation and start the conversation about a safer, more comfortable path through chronic facial pain.