Methods: Patients attending a teaching hospital dental emergency clinic diagnosed with acute periapical periodontitis, irreversible pulpitis, reversible pulpitis, dentine hypersensitivity and pericoronitis completed the DePaQ. Responses to each of the 16 items were dichotomised, and cross-tabulations followed by discriminant analysis were performed to identify items capable of classifying the patients into three groups of clinical conditions. Comparison between questionnaire- and clinical-classification was made to determine its validity.
Results: Seven out of 14 original items were retained for the short-form DePaQ. The items retained were Pain in tooth/teeth (or tooth/teeth and gums), Pain horrible to excruciating, Pain is continuous, Pain is worse with cold, Painful tooth feels loose, Difficult to swallow and Difficulties sleeping. The overall correct classification rate was 84.5%, kappa ranged from 0.59-0.66 and sensitivity from 0.59-0.92.
Conclusions: A simple and quick to administer short-form DePaQ consisting of seven items capable of differentiating dental pain patients into three groups of conditions was derived. The short-form DePaQ may be administered over the telephone or in person by a non-clinical or dentally qualified person, and used to triage dental pain patients to the appropriate service or provider. Future research is needed to further test its validity in different clinical settings and evaluate its effectiveness as a triage tool in managing patients seeking treatment for dental pain.