Oro-facial pain and treatment seeking in Hong Kong Chinese

Objectives: There is presently very little information on the prevalence and impact of oro-facial pain in Southern Chinese people in Hong Kong. This study was to estimate the prevalence of self-reported oro-facial pain symptoms and to study the treatment seeking behaviour in adult, community-dwelling, Cantonese speaking Chinese people in Hong Kong. Methods: A telephone survey was carried out using a structural questionnaire. The questionnaire incorporated questions on the experiences of eight oro-facial pain symptoms in the past month and the professional treatment seeking behaviour. Results: Of the 1,222 survey respondents, 508 (41.6%) reported some form of oro-facial pain. The most prevalent pain symptom was tooth sensitivity (27.7%), followed by toothache (12.5%) and the least prevalent symptom was shooting pain in the face (1.1%). Among those who experienced oro-facial pain in the past month, 20.1% experienced the pain frequently (very often/quite often) and 46.1% had moderate to severe pain. However, only 20.3% of them sought professional treatment. A significantly higher proportion of those who experienced the pain frequently (38.2%) and those who had moderate to severe pain (27.8%) sought treatment compared to those experienced the pain less frequently (15.8%, P<0.001) and had mild pain only (13.9%, P<0.001). Conclusions: The prevalence of the self-reported oro-facial pain varied among different pain symptoms. Treatment seeking was not common but the treatment seeking behaviour was related to the frequency and intensity of the oro-facial pain experienced.