Predicting the Perception of Dental Pain Based on Pain Anxiety, Dental Anxiety and Mental Pain in an Iranian Sample: Emphasizing the Type of Patient Complaint

Abstract

Background: dental pain is one of the most common complaints related to dentistry services. Studies indicate that in addition to the damage to the nerves of teeth, psychological factors affect the perception of pain. This study aims to investigate the psychological factors which influence precepting tooth pain. Moreover, another purpose of the current study is to investigate the impact of some services such as tooth restoration and a root canal on the psychological variables. Methods: The research design was a cross-sectional study by convenience sampling method. The participants were 328 patients who consulted the dentistry clinics in Kermanshah city in 2020-20201. The used instruments for this study were the Questionnaires of Pain Anxiety (PASS-20), Dental Anxiety (DAI), Mental Pain (OMMP), and Pain Perception (SF-MPQ-2). Finally, the data after being collected were entered into SPSS version 24 and were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results: According to the results of the Pearson correlation coefficient, precepting pain had a significant relationship (P=.001) with dental anxiety (r=0.38), pain anxiety (r=0.45), and mental pain (r=0.25). Based on the results of simultaneous multiple regression analysis (Enter), dental anxiety variables (β =.266), pain anxiety (β =.356), and mental pain (β =.139) were the significant predictors of precepting pain (P<0.05). Moreover, in terms of dental anxiety, there was a significant difference between the patients who consult dentistry clinics for root canal services and those whose purposes were receiving other services (P<.001). Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that psychological factors such as dental anxiety, pain anxiety, and mental pain affect precepting dental pain. Further, the kind of received services influences the psychological factors related to dentistry services.