Pain Experience

The pain experience varies for different individuals as a result of factors, such as age, gender, situation and context, previous experiences, present expectations, and a host of other psychological and physiological conditions which are difficult to characterize. Personality characteristics and emotive reactions play a major role in how an individual reacts to pain. Thus, perceived pain is not always proportional to the intensity of the tissue damage or the undesirable stimulus. Rather, the nociceptive system (a peripheral nerve, organ, or mechanism for the reception and transmission of painful or injurious stimuli) modulates the perception of pain from tissue injury for transmittal to the brain.9 Hypersensitivity is a chronic condition with acute exacerbations. Acute pain often causes anxiety, while chronic pain is more likely to lead to depression. The pain of hypersensitivity may lead to the expression of both.

Oral health care professionals vary in their expression of compassion and degree of concern they show for their clients’ pain. An appreciation for the impact of the pain on a client’s quality of life and a more thorough understanding of hypersensitivity may lead clinicians to be more sympathetic. Probable causative factors should be identified, and various treatment options thoroughly explored and offered to these clients.