The Effectiveness of Orofacial Pain Therapy in Indonesia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

OBJECTIVES: As the most complained oral problems in Indonesia, the therapy of orofacial pain has to be constantly evaluated. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of orofacial pain therapy in Indonesia. METHODS: This study recruited 5412 (3816 female; 1596 male) participants from 27 districts in West Java province. Half of the participants (2714) were recruited from those who were treated at community health centers whilst the rest were those who were treated at private dental clinics. A Likert-scale questionnaire that consists of nine questions that were divided to three subsections was used. The first subsection of the questionnaire evaluated the participants' post-therapy basic oral functions (three questions), and the second part evaluated the participants' post-therapy pain intensity and frequency (three questions), whilst the last part evaluated the participants' post-therapy activities (three questions). All data were then cross-tabulated and correlated by using Spearman correlation. RESULT: The current study revealed that out of 5412 participants, 4023 (74.33%) participants claimed that the therapy has enabled them to perform their work activity as usual, whilst 2576 (59.2%) claimed that the therapy has decreased the intensity of the pain moderately. A significant (p < 0.01) correlation (r = 0.1) between the type of dental facility visited and the total score of the therapy effectiveness was revealed. CONCLUSION: The therapy of orofacial pain in Indonesian sample was proven to be effective. Further study evaluating the reasons underlying the current results is of importance.

The efficacy of curcumin in managing acute inflammation pain on the post-surgical removal of impacted third molars patients: A randomised controlled trial.

Curcumin is a turmeric-contained active ingredient that has been proven to be effective in treating pain and inflammation due to its analgesic as well as anti-inflammation potential. Odontectomy, on the other hand, has been well known for its post-procedure acute inflammation pain. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of curcuminoid in treating acute inflammation post-operative pain in the post-surgical removal of impacted third molars patients. Ninety (44 males; 46 females) participants were recruited in this randomised controlled trial and randomly assigned to the control group (those who consumed mefenamic acid) or the experimental group (those who consumed curcumin). Numeric rating scale (NRS) was used as an evaluation tool to evaluate the intensity of the pain experienced by the participants. Pain evaluation was performed immediately after anaesthesia effect disappeared (T0 ) and an hour after participant took their first (T1 ), second (T2 ) and third (T3 ) course of drugs. All data were collected and analysed using Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. The current study showed that participants in both groups experienced significantly (P < .01) less pain compared to their initial pain level. In addition, when the two groups were compared, it was revealed that those in the treatment group experienced even significantly (P < .01) less pain compared to those in the control group. It can be concluded that curcumin is effective in treating acute inflammation pain in the post-surgical removal of impacted third molars patients.

Effect of experimental anterior temporalis muscle pain on jaw movements.

To test the hypotheses that experimental noxious stimulation of the anterior temporalis muscle results in significant decreases in jaw movement amplitude and velocity, and there are significant correlations between scores of mood or pain-related cognitions and amplitude and velocity. The jaw movements of 14 asymptomatic participants were recorded during standardised open/close jaw movements and free and standardised chewing tasks. Tonic infusion of hypertonic saline into the right anterior temporalis muscle maintained pain intensity between 40 and 60 mm on a 100-mm visual analogue scale. Tasks were performed in a single session in the following sequence: baseline condition, test 1 condition (during hypertonic or isotonic saline infusion), test 2 condition (during saline infusion) (10-min rest between conditions). Participants completed the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS). Amplitude and velocity of opening and closing were compared between conditions with a repeated-measures analysis of variance (anova), and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient explored correlations; statistical significance: P < 0·05. For any of the three tasks, there were no significant differences in kinematic variables between any condition and no significant correlations between DASS-21 or PCS scores and kinematic variables during hypertonic saline infusion. The absence of a significant reduction in velocity or amplitude of open/close or chewing jaw movements during experimental temporalis muscle pain is not consistent with the Pain Adaptation Model proposing decreases in kinematic measures in pain. The lack of significant correlations between psychological variables and measures of jaw movement may reflect the low scores reported by our study sample.