Abstract :
Background: Pain intensity is a common outcome domain assessed in pain clinical trials. The patient’s self-report is the gold standard and it appears to be embedded in everyday clinical practice. Most often pain assessment is considered to be the cornerstone for ideal treatment.
Aim and Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the dental patients’ level of pain using Full Cup Test (FCT) and Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), and to compare and validate the Full Cup Test in the assessment of orofacial pain with Numeric Pain Rating Scale.
Materials and Methods: A total of sixty patients presenting with various forms of orofacial pain were included in this cross-sectional study. Data collected include the patient demographic details and the diagnosis of each case was made after proper history taking, clinical examination and radiographic investigation. Pain assessment was done for each patient using both numeric pain rating scale and full cup test.
Statistical Analysis and Results: All the data were analysed using inferential statistics Mann Whitney test and the analysis was carried out with SPSS 17. The comparison of mean pain scores using full cup test and numeric pain rating scale shows there was significant differences between acute and chronic pain with P- value of 0.023 and 0.005 respectively. FCT had shown 83 percent sensitivity and 94 percent specificity.
Conclusion: Patients who presented with either acute or chronic dental conditions experienced moderate to severe level of pain. FCT is useful for both evaluating and discerning changes in pain and it can be used as a tool in pain assessment.
Keyword :
Full Cup Test (FCT), Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), Orofacial pain assessment.