The Prevalence of Orodental Pain in Peshawar — a Study

The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the frequency of orodental pain and to determine various age groups and gender of the patients who visited various dental clinics in Peshawar, Pakistan. A cross sectional study on 3000 dental patients of age 15 to 75 years complaining of pain in orodental region during a period of one year (1st March 2008 to 28th February 2009) was carried out. The patients suffered from somatic (85.83%, 2575/3000), neuropathic (5.03%, 151/3000) and from psychogenic pain (9.13%, 274/3000). The ratios of males to females in patients with somatic, neuropathic and psychogenic pain were calculated as 1025:1550 or 1:1.5, 76:75 or 1:1 and 99:175 or 1.7:1 respectively. The patients falling in somatic pain groups suffered from pulpal pain (1901/3000,63.36%), periodontal (379/3000, 12.63%), mucogingival (85/3000, 2.83%), TMJ (95/3000, 3.16%), post extraction (33/3000, 1.10%), erupting teeth (55/3000, 1.83%) and others (27/3000, 0.90%). The group falling in category of others included pain from alveolitis, cellulitis, osteomylitis, bruxism, odontogenic cysts, cracked tooth syndrome and maxillary sinusitis. Most of the patients consulted for somatic pain. Females with psychogenic and males with somatic pain were dominant. The most prominent age group complaining of orodental pain was 56-65 years (660/3000, 22%) followed by 36-45 years (650/3000, 21.66%). Patients with pulpal pain were the most frequent followed by periodontal pain.