Methods: This study used a cross-sectional multi-stage random sample of adults aged 16-65 years in a deprived area in the UK. Participants completed a postal questionnaire that included socio-demographic items (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, and area-based deprivation) and the DePaQ: a pre-tested 16-item detailed pain inventory of pain experienced in the previous month. The DePaQ assessed a range of pain parameters including pain duration, location, stimuli and eating disruptions. Multiplying DePaQ item-responses by Fisher coefficients produced Fisher scores, which were then entered into classification equations to assign participants who reported pain to one of three acute dental pain groups. Further data analyses included cross-tabulations, ANOVA analyses and binary and multinomial logistic regressions.
Results: Preliminary analyses on 1591 adults found that 39% reported acute dental pain in the previous month. No significant differences were found between participants reporting and not reporting acute dental pain with respect to age, gender, ethnicity or area-based deprivation. The DePaQ identified the prevalence of pain in three acute dental pain groups: apical periodontitis/irreversible pulpitis (4.5%); reversible pulpitis/dentine hypersensitivity (30.2%) and pericoronitis (5.0%). The apical periodontitis/irreversible pulpitis pain group had a higher percentage of males (OR: 3.0, 95% CI: 1.1 ,8.0) and fewer adults residing in more affluent areas (OR=0.26; 95% CI=0.07, 0.94) than the reversible pulpitis/dentine hypersensitivity pain group.
Conclusions: This first population-based study using the DePaQ questionnaire identified a high prevalence of acute dental pain in a socially deprived population.