| Abstrakt: |
After an extensive review of the dental literature, few articles were found related to pain and implantology. Management of orofacial pain has traditionally been a difficult challenge for the dental-medical profession. Patients may be afraid of dental pain, particularly in cases of dental implantology. Therefore, a study to obtain more conclusive data was developed. Taking into account that the perception of pain and the threshold of pain vary among individuals, a 2-year clinical study was established in private practice utilizing a verbal method (double-blind). The study was used to quantify sensory and affective aspects of pain associated with dental implantology on 75 patients in a private dental office. All of the implants were placed by the same clinician. Data were recorded following a Pain Data Sheet designed for this particular study. The aim of this study was to obtain different aspects of data as follows: 1) Fear of the dentist and fear of dental implant procedures utilizing a descriptive scale of 1 to 10, with 1 indicative of no fear. 2) Dental areas and ridges: Dental pain, pain in edentulous areas, and pain in the implanted area utilizing a scale of 0 to 8, with 0 indicative of no pain. 3) Function and pain: during mastication, swallowing, speech, yawning, opening, closing, and lateral excursions and indication of cervical pain or back pain, each calibrated by the presence or absence of pain. 4) Palpation and pain of the temporomandibular joint, the temporal muscle, the area of the pterygoid muscles, masseter muscle, and sternocleidomastoid muscle, all calibrated on the indication of presence or absence of pain. 5) Others: ear pain, neuralgia, headaches, edema, and hematoma, calibrated on the basis of presence or absence. The aforementioned factors were evaluated immediately before surgery and after surgery, at 24 hours, and during a follow up for a period of 2 years at intervals of 1 week; 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 months; and 1 and 2 years after surgery. Also recorded were the uses of presurgical and postsurgical medication at the first and second surgical phases, age, sex, buccal opening, number and position of implants, previous dental experiences, and the psychological preparation for dental implant treatment. The results of the statistical analysis indicate no correlation between pain and dental implantology procedures, in a private dental practice, at the level of significance of P > .001. |
