title: Chairside intraoral qualitative somatosensory testing: reliability and comparison between patients with atypical odontalgia and healthy controls.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess intraoral inter- and intraexaminer reliability of three qualitative measures of intraoral somatosensory function and to compare these measures between patients with atypical odontalgia (AO) and healthy controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-one AO patients and 47 healthy controls participated. Inter- and intraexaminer reliability was tested on a subgroup of 46 subjects (25 AO; 21 healthy). Sensitivity to touch, cold, and pinprick stimuli was evaluated on the painful gingival site and the corresponding contralateral site in AO patients, and bilaterally on the gingiva of the first maxillary premolars in controls. Patients were asked to report hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, or normal sensitivity to stimuli on the painful site compared with the nonpainful site. Kappa values were calculated, and chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare frequencies between groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Kappa values ranged between 0.63 and 0.75. The frequency of hypersensitivity to either modality was significantly higher in patients (29% to 61%) than in controls (9% to 17%) (P < .015), whereas reports of hyposensitivity were similar between groups (2% to 16%) (P > .057). Only 3.2% of the AO patients had no reports of abnormal sensitivity on any of the tests, compared with 59.6% of the healthy subjects (P < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Intraoral qualitative somatosensory testing can detect intraoral sensory disturbances in AO patients, and the reliability is sufficient for initial screening of orofacial somatosensory function.
authors: Department of Dentistry, Health, Aarhus University, Denmark. lene.hansen@odontologi.au.dk
authors: Lene
authors: L
authors: Baad-Hansen
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Pigg
authors: Susanne Elmasry
authors: SE
authors: Ivanovic
authors: Hanan
authors: H
authors: Faris
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: List
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Drangsholt
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Svensson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006941:Hyperesthesia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006987:Hypesthesia / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D020886:Somatosensory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014098:Toothache / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*