Pain and Orthodontic Treatment Patient Experiences and Provider Assessments

Objective: To explore whether patients' pain experiences and orthodontists' assessments of their patients' pain levels are consistent and whether orthodontists are aware of their patients' use of pain medication. Materials and Methods: Survey data were collected from 116 adolescent patients (44 male, 72 female; aged 10 to 19 years; mean age, 14.27 years) and from their orthodontic care providers. Results: While only 18.0% of these patients agreed that they had pain during their last orthodontic appointment, 58.5% indicated that they experienced pain for a few days after their appointment. On average, dentists underestimated the patients' pain during the last appointment (rated on a 5-point scale, with 1 indicating no pain: providers 2.01 vs patients = 2.28; P = .042), immediately after the last appointment (1.93 vs 2.34; P = .005), and 1 day (1.77 vs 2.53; P < .001) and 2 days (1.57 vs 2.19; P < .001) after the previous appointment. Only 26.5% of the patients used pain medication immediately following and 1 day after the last appointment. Providers underestimated the amount of medication used. Conclusion: Orthodontists underestimated the degree to which orthodontic treatment caused pain for their patients and their patients' use of pain medication. (Angle Orthod. 2009;79:1175-1181.)