The influence of patient's motivation on reported pain during orthodontic treatment

Marcio José da Silva CAMPOS, Robert Willer Farinazzo VITRAL

Introduction: Patients usually experience pain during orthodontic treatment. This fact can afect cooperation and the development of treatment. Reporting pain during treatment seems to be inluenced by emotional aspects such as the patient’s motivation. Objective: To assess the relationship between patient’s motivation and the intensity of reported pain during two stages of treatment. Methods: Twenty males (11-37 years old) answered a questionnaire divided into ive categories regarding their motivation towards treatment. The subjects were studied for 14 days (7 days with bonded brackets and 7 days with the initial arch inserted) and the intensity of pain was evaluated on a daily basis. All the issues, including the intensity of pain, were measured through the visual analog scale (VAS). Results: The VAS-associated questionnaire proved to have good temporal reliability and reasonable internal consistency, being that the “perceived severity” domain had the greatest, although not signiicant (p = 0.196) correlation with pain intensity. Only the question asking the patients if they thought that their teeth were too uneven showed a positive correlation with pain intensity (p = 0.048). Conclusion: The results seem to indicate that the ive categories related to treatment motivation cannot be used to predict discomfort during treatment. In addition, patients who think their teeth are too uneven may experience more severe pain due to greater strength when inserting the initial arch.

Keywords: Pain. Orthodontics. Motivation.

How to cite: Campos MJS, Vitral RWF. The influence of patient’s motivation on reported pain during orthodontic treatment. Dental Press J Orthod. 2013 May-June;18(3):80-5.

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