No abstract

Objectives: Pain assessment by clinicians can be difficult as it is subjective and depends on the patient›s self-report. The aims of this study were to evaluate the validity and reliability of a pain-rating scale; the full cup test (FCT), and to compare its performance to other scales in assessing pain following dental surgery. The ease of using these pain scales were compared. Study design: Forty-three patients who have had different dental surgeries were included. All patients asked to complete five pain scales: Faces pain scale, numeric rating scale, visual analog scale, verbal rating scale, and FCT for seven consecutive days starting on the day of the surgery. The analysis of variance (One-way ANOVA test), correlation between different scales (Pearson correlation), and reliability (Cronbach alpha) of FCT were evaluated. Results: The scales correlated highly with each other (P < 0.001). The FCT was highly reliable (Cronbach›s Alpha= .970) and was found to be the easiest scale to use. Conclusion: The FCT is valid, reliable and relatively easy to use pain scale in this group of patients. It can be used to assess pain intensity interchangeably with other pain rating scales.

No abstract