We sought to determine the effect of age and gender on the perception of dental pain in Nigerian subjects. The setting for the study was the Dental Hospital, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. 317 subjects, (142 males and 175 females) with healthy maxillary central incisors, whose ages ranged from 10 to 82 years, were involved in the study. The subjects were grouped into four according to their ages i.e. 10-19 years, 20-40 years, 41-60 years and >60 years and labelled as adolescents, the young, middle aged and the elderly respectively. For each subject, the maxillary right central incisor was carefully dried and isolated from saliva. Its pain threshold was determined using a digitest vitality tester (Model No D6260) as the stimulator. The score was noted and recorded against the age and gender of the subject. The data collected for all the subjects were analysed using SPSS version 11.0 for windows. There was a statistically significant difference in the stimulation scores (pain thresholds) recorded among the various age groups. Also, a significant correlation existed between the age distribution and the stimulation scores recorded by the subjects. There was however no statistically significant difference or correlation between the stimulation scores reported and the subjects' gender.Older subjects in this study had a significantly lower pain threshold than the younger ones. The subjects' gender did not influence their dental pain perception. Introduction Dental pain is perceived through the stimulation of the mandibular and the maxillary branches of the trigeminal nerve (the 5th cranial nerve). According to Bowsher (1), the afferent fibres of the trigeminal system travel via the gasserian ganglion, where their cell bodies are located, to enter the pons at the lateral aspect. Fibres concerned with discriminative tactile sensation, touch and pressure, synapse in the main sensory nucleus of the trigeminal nerve, thereafter ascending to the primary somatosensory cortex via the thalamus.Pain and temperature fibres, however, follow the descending spinal tract of the trigeminal nerve. Neurones in the descending spinal tract synapse with the second-order neurones of the spinal nucleus of trigeminal. The majority of the fibres, which arise in the spinal nucleus, cross the median plane (decussation) and ascend to the ventral posterior medial nucleus of the thalamus. The third order neurones project from the thalamus to the parietal lobe of the cortex via the posterior limb of the internal capsule.Various studies (2,3,4,5,6,7) have reported the effect of age and gender on response to pain generally including dental pain but the reports have been diverging and conflicting in their conclusions.In a study of the effects of gender and age on the examination of the colon among 108 and 72 female and male patients respectively, Ristikankare et al (2) reported that immediately after the colonoscopy the women reported more significant pain than men. A repeat questionnaire two weeks after the examination revealed that women still rated colonoscopy more painful and difficult than men. Also, the endoscopist judged colonoscopy to be more difficult and the time taken to reach the caecum longer for women.The young patients (aged 20-40 years) in this series experienced more discomfort than the middle-aged (aged 41-60 years) or the old (aged 61-75 years) as evaluated after the colonoscopy. In the repeated questionnaire the young patients reported more discomfort and pain than the middle-aged. The endoscopist however judged the examination to be more difficult in the aged than for the middle-aged or the young.Ristikankare et al (2) concluded that colonoscopy was less tolerable and more difficult for women than men. Although colonoscopy among the old patients was technically more difficult they tolerated the procedure better than the young.Subramaniam et al (3) evaluated the efficacy of the combination of epidural keta
展开▼
