[Self-medication with analgesics. A study on odontalgia]

Odontalgia is a painful condition which is frequently associated to self-medication with analgesics. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the main characteristics of self-medication on these patients.

A total of 226 patients who requested medical care for odontalgic problems at ambulatory level were evaluated. A case from was completed for each patient, considering diagnostic syndrome, pain characteristics and self-medication.

Pain was present in 59% of the patients with a mean duration of near 20 days. Its intensity was mainly from moderate to severe, but one third of the patients referred very severe or excruciating pain. Near seventy percent of all patients with pain complaints were self-medicating with analgesics, 55% of them with one drug, 36% with two and 8% with three. A clear trend to use more drugs when pain intensity was higher was observed. The most frequently used drugs were paracetamol (39%), acetilsalicylic acid (24%) and metamizol (17%). The majority of patients selected themselves the drug and only a small number were advised by pharmacist or non health professionals.

The present study shows a high frequency of self-medication in patients with odontalgia suggesting that this type of pain might be useful as a model to study self-medication with analgesic drugs.