Pain scores of odontogenic orofacial lesions in a tertiary Hospital in sub Saharan West Africa.

Abstract

Aim & objective To determine the correlation of three main pain measuring scales used as diagnostic aid to orofacial lesion of odontogenic origin. Methodology A six month cross sectional survey utilizing interviewer administered questionnaire targeted at attendees of Dental outpatient clinic of University College Hospital, Nigeria (UCH), a tertiary hospital. Results Mean age for odontogenic pain was 35.68 ± 16.44; male to female ratio was 1: 1.24. Pain was more severe but statistically insignificant among females (p = 0.85), however, there was significant difference in the mean pain intensity between diagnostic categories of odontogenic lesion (p = 0.00).The commonest odontogenic lesion category was caries related (54.3% of all orofacial and 58.9% of odontogenic lesions respectively). There was positive correlation between the three pain measuring scales (Visual Analogue Scale (VAS),Number of verbs chosen(NWC) M r = 0.838 & r = 0.599 respectively). However the three diagnostic scales failed to distinguish between specific odontogenic lesions when the mean pain scores were very close. Conclusion Pain measuring scales should only be used as aid to diagnosis and not for definitive diagnosis.