Title: Assessment of Pain Perception after Surgical and Nonsurgical Periodontal Therapy- A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Dr Apoorva S.M, Dr Suma Prashanth, Dr Suchetha. A, Dr Sapna N, Dr Darshan. B. M, Dr Divya Bhat
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v9i7.30
Abstract
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional feeling accompanying existing or impending tissue damage. Periodontal disease is not necessarily painful. Conversely, periodontal treatment is experienced as painful by substantial numbers of patients. The intensity of pain differs with various nonsurgical and surgical periodontal therapies. This pain intensity perceived by patient has been recorded by the clinicians using visual analog scale. The visual analog scale isa measurement tool to assess the patient’s pain perception.
Aim: To assess the perception of pain after surgical and nonsurgical periodontal therapies.
Methodology: 40 patients (between 20 and 65 years of age) with active periodontal sites and 20 periodontally healthy patients were selected and were divided into 3 groups: Group I (n=20) - Healthy patients; Group II (n=20) – those to be treated with surgical therapy (open flap debridement by raising Kirkland flap); Group III (n=20) – those to be treated with nonsurgical therapy (Root planing). The degree of Pain was assessed using visual analog scale after 2 hours of periodontal therapy in group II and group III and immediately after scaling in group I patients. All the 3 groups were matched according to the age and gender. Collected data were tabulated and analyzed statistically using Independent Student t test and Chi square test.
Results: In group I, 65% (N= 13) of the respondents had no pain, 35% (N= 7) had mild pain and none had moderate and severe pain. In group II, 5% (N= 1) of the respondents had no pain, 60% (N= 12) had mild pain, 35% (N=7) had moderate pain, and none had severe pain. In group III, 50% (N= 10) of the respondents had no pain, 50% (N= 10) had mild pain and none had moderate pain and severe pain. And the difference in the pain perception levels among all the 3 groups were statistically significant (χ2= 25.06).
Conclusion: The pain perception level showed statistically significant difference between healthy and surgical group, surgical and nonsurgical group, but the difference was not statistically significant between the healthy and nonsurgical group. The results of this study were found to be beneficial as it provided a feed back to clinician. It helps in further modification to be taken in to consideration during the procedure thereby reducing patient’s anxiety and pain perception after the procedure.
