Pain and tooth pulp evoked potentials

The purpose of this study was to verify whether the late components (N 140) of TPEPs were a reliable index of pain intensity. In the group with acute pain, except for higher amplitudes of the second negative wave, the plateau phenomenon has been noted. Analgesic and placebo effects indicated that the method used offers more objective than subjective components, because the real value of amplitudes is about 10% of control values for analgesic and between 60 and 70% for placebo. Shorter latency periods were observed in all parts of evoked potentials in the patients suffering from trigeminal neuralgia, as occurrence of a greater number of waves; while amplitudes on the affected side were significantly higher than on the healthy side.