Patienters smärtupplevelser i samband med scaling under tandhygienistbehandling - en enkätstudie

The aim of this study was to investigate patients’ experiences of pain during dental hygienist treatment and scaling. The study is based on a questionnaire and includes 129 patients, from four dental clinics in Skåne, Sweden. The questionnaire consisted of ten questions with a Visual Analogue Scale as a main question. Questions about age, gender and dental anxiety were also included. The mean of VAS was overall 2.2. Among the questions about what kind of scaling instrument that causes most pain, the results were ambiguous. If only one kind of instrument was used, the handinstrument was most painful. If both instruments were used, the ultrasonic scaler proved to be more painful than the hand instrument. The results of this study show that women experienced a higher level of pain than men, but there were no statistical significant difference. The reason to why the patients experienced more pain from the ultrasonic scaler, when both ultrasonic scaler and handinstrument were used, could be that the patients had the opportunity to compare the different instruments. Another reason to the higher level of pain could be the discomfort of sound and water from the ultrasonic scaler. The conclusion of this study is that a visit to a dental hygienist, including scaling, is not very painful, independent of instrument being used and whether you experience dental anxiety or not