Method: Institutional review, informed consent and screening were conducted to identify subjects with evidence of gingival recession and moderate-to-severe dentinal hypersensitivity at one or two test sites. At each site, a trained examiner administered a 1-sec application of cool air (~21oC) using a dental syringe, immediately after which, clinical response was graded using a standard 4-point scale (Schiff) to categorize discomfort ranging from none-to-painful. After the clinical evaluation, subjects then self-rated sensitivity pain from none-to-worst using a standard 100-unit visual analog scale (VAS) on a laptop. This process was repeated at a second visit within 14 days with no other interventions, and neither the examiner nor the subject had access to the previous score. Intra-class correlations (ICC) were calculated using a 0-to-1 scale, where 0 represented no agreement and 1 represented perfect agreement.
Result: A total of 21 subjects attended both visits, and all data were included in the analysis. Age ranged from 32-74 years, with males comprising the majority (67%) of study subjects. There was considerable variation in both the clinical and self-assessments of air sensitivity. Visit 1 means (SD) were 2.36 (0.45) for Schiff and 70.78 (23.49) for VAS. Visit 2 means (SD) were 2.31 (0.46) for Schiff and 72.04 (24.83) for VAS. Clinical and self-assessment scores were well correlated across visits. The ICC for clinician-graded Schiff was 0.652 compared to the ICC for self-scored VAS was 0.727.
Conclusion: Self-assessment and clinician evaluation of dentinal hypersensitivity response to air were similarly reproducible for up to 2-weeks.