Can Intra-Oral Qualitative Sensory Testing Foretell Postoperative Dental Pain? A Preliminary Report

Alona Emodi-Perlman, Deia Altarescu, Pessia Frideman-Rubin and Ilana Eli
Additional contact information
Alona Emodi-Perlman: Department of Oral Rehabilitation, the Maurice and Gabriella School of Dental Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6139001, Israel
Deia Altarescu: Department of Oral Rehabilitation, the Maurice and Gabriella School of Dental Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6139001, Israel
Pessia Frideman-Rubin: Department of Oral Rehabilitation, the Maurice and Gabriella School of Dental Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6139001, Israel
Ilana Eli: Department of Oral Rehabilitation, the Maurice and Gabriella School of Dental Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6139001, Israel

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-13

Abstract: Pain prevention and management is one of the primary goals of dental care. Postoperative dental pain (PDP) following caries removal and performance of a restorative dental treatment is a common clinical phenomenon, often causing significant discomfort to dental patients. In the present study, a psychophysical non-invasive method, qualitative sensory testing (QualST), was used in an attempt to foretell PDP following dental restorative procedures. Forty-two dental patients underwent an intra-oral cold QualST four times: immediately prior to a restorative dental procedure and at a follow-up meeting 1–3 weeks later, on the treated and on the contralateral oral sides. The QualST measures included subjects’ evaluation of the magnitude of pain and cold sensations experienced (on visual analogue scales) and the duration of the cold sensation (in seconds). Additional measures included age, gender, level of dental anxiety, jaw treated, and type of dental restoration performed (Class I or Class V). Subjects’ PDP was assessed through the phone using numeric rating scales 24, 48, and 72 h postoperatively. The highest level of PDP experienced by subjects occurred 24 h postoperatively (ANOVA with repeated measures). Of the study variables, the QualST pain sensation (B = 0.645, p < 0.001), duration of the cold sensation (B = 0.042, p < 0.05), and an interaction between gender and dental anxiety (B = 0.136, p < 0.05) emerged as possible predictors of the highest PDP experienced by subjects (stepwise regression). The results suggest that subjects’ reaction to an intra-oral cold stimulation of the oral mucosa can serve as a potential tool to foretell postoperative dental pain following restorative dental procedures.

Keywords: postoperative pain; dental; quantitative sensory testing; qualitative sensory testing; QST; QualST; dental restorations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/8059/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/8059/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:8059-:d:852858

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().