Hypnosis on acute dental and maxillofacial pain relief: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The effects of hypnosis on acute pain have been discussed recently, resulting in increased attention in the dental/maxillofacial field offering new perspectives, especially in emergency situations, trauma, or acute inflammatory situations where conventional pharmaceuticals are contraindicated due to allergies or intolerance reactions.

To systematically evaluate and assess the effects of hypnosis on acute dental/facial pain relief. Randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, controlled clinical trials, cross-sectional studies, evaluation, and validation studies, following the PRISMA guidelines, of human subjects of all ages were included.

Five electronic databases (Cochrane, Embase, MEDLINE via PubMed, LILACS, Scopus) were screened for studies published between 1989 - 2021. A NIH quality-assessment-tool was performed.

27 papers have been included and a meta-analysis was performed. Hypnosis has been reported to reduce intraoperative and postoperative pain as well as the use of analgesics in various dental procedures such as tooth extraction. Highly hypnotizable subjects generally respond better to hypnosis. Different hypnosis techniques were used for pain relief and relaxation. The studies show a large heterogeneity.

Although there are only a small number of studies on the subject so far, evidence can be confirmed for the effects of hypnosis on acute pain relief in dental/maxillofacial area. Despite the promising results, further research is needed.

Hypnosis offers a possible alternative to conventional pain medications for acute dental and maxillofacial pain, especially in cases of allergies or contraindications; it can be easily applied by a trained practitioner.