One of Scotland's leading oral surgeons has highlighted a link between facial pain and domestic abuse.

Dr Christine Goodall is urging dentists to treat patients who present with this type of pain, with no obvious bruising, as potential victims.

The doctor and founder of Medics Against Violence addressed the British Society for Oral Medicine's annual conference held at the University of Dundee on Thursday.

Dr Goodall talked about a previous study that showed 69% of people who saw a dentist with chronic face pain, for which there was no identifiable cause, had either been victims of domestic abuse or had been raped, sexually assaulted or suffered childhood sexual abuse.

The senior lecturer in oral surgery at the University of Glasgow said facial pain was an indicator of an underlying issue.

She also said it was common in patients who had recently suffered a bereavement or were struggling to cope with life.

She said: "Largely what I spoke about was domestic abuse - the concept that it is something we should all be looking out for in terms of health but also that the symptoms that people present with may not always be what you expect.

"So quite a number of people turn up with bruises on their faces and black eyes and that is fairly obvious - I don't think any of us would miss that.

"But what other people will turn up with when they're living with a chronically violent or controlling situation is that they'll develop symptoms of other sorts.

"A number of patients will for example turn up having developed chronic facial pain and I spoke to the oral medicine people about the need for them to look behind that and consider why patients are having those symptoms and not to just reach for the prescription pad."

Medics against Violence is a universally recognised Scottish healthcare charity which works alongside the World Health Organisation's Violence Prevention Alliance.