An investigation of language used by children to describe discomfort during dental pulp-testing.
OBJECTIVE
Studies of the descriptions of pain by children have neglected their linguistic development, therefore estimates of dental pain in children may not be accurate. This study sought (1) to identify words chosen by children to describe dental pain and (2) to establish the effect of linguistic development on that description.


METHODS
Seventy-eight consecutive children between the ages of 5 and 13 years attending a paediatric dental clinic.


METHODS
Each child completed the WORD reading comprehension test. They then underwent a pulp test and a simulated pulp test, administered by a dentist in a counterbalanced order, of a healthy primary canine or permanent incisor, according to the child's age. To describe each test, the children had to (1) select words from a list of 58 read by the experimenter and (2) give ratings on scales representing 'sore' and 'tingly'.


RESULTS
Analysis of variance confirmed that the children chose more words for the pulp test than for the simulated test (P < 0.001); the former also elicited higher ratings for 'sore' and 'tingly'. The numbers of words chosen were transformed by a square root constant to ensure a normal distribution. Multiple regression analysis then showed that (1) the better the children's reading comprehension, the fewer words they chose, possibly because they were less inclined to choose unfamiliar words, and (2) the older they were, the more words they chose, possibly because of having more experience of pain. There were similar findings for ratings of 'sore' and 'tingly'.


CONCLUSIONS
To assess children's experience of pain (1) they need to be presented with a list of words like the ones in this study, (2) the numbers of words chosen by them would represent the severity of pain, and (3) those numbers need to be adjusted for the children's reading comprehension and age.
Toole
R J
RJ
Psychology Department, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
Lindsay
S J
SJ
Johnstone
S
S
Smith
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003791:Dental Pulp Test / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000523:psychology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014098:Toothache / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*