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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Use of the Operant Orofacial Pain Assessment Device (OPAD) to Measure Changes in Nociceptive Behavior
Published on: June 10, 2013
Pain and orthodontic treatment
Amy M Krukemeyer1, Airton O Arruda, Marita Rohr Inglehart
1School of Dentistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich, USA.
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.
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