Analysis of pain perception of elderly patients with different levels of anxiety during surgical dental appointment

Abstract

Elderly patients constitute a significant proportion of the population. All they need skilled dental care. Elderly patients constitute a significant proportion of the population. All at some point need skilled dental care. However, a significant proportion of patients are afraid of dental appointments. Premedication is prescribed for patients with high levels of anxiety before dental treatment. However, study of each patient’s medical history reveals a significant number of comorbidities limiting the use of medications for the prevention of stress and pain at a dentist’s appointment. This study evaluated the perception of pain of elderly patients with middle and high levels dentophobia during a surgical dental appointment. All patients who participated in the study live in geriatric center. All patients before tooth extraction surgery took the advice of a psychiatrist and neurologist. Patients with a high level of a dentophobia were given an over the counter premedication and local anesthesia with a solution of 4% articaine with vasoconstrictor in a dilution of 1:200000. Premedication was not administered for patients with a middle level of dentophobia, and local anesthesia was administered using a 3% mepivacaine solution without vasoconstrictor. Evaluation of pain perception was carried out by the following methods: electroodontodiagnosis, electromyography of facial muscles, Sound Eyes Motor Scale and the visual analogue scale. The results obtained using these methods have shown a reliable correlation between each other. The efficiency of premedication was proven as reducing the perception of pain of patients with high level of dentophobia. Refs 15. Figs 4.