The prevalence and impact of dental pain in 8-year-old school children in Harrow, England

Objective To assess the prevalence, severity and impact of dental pain. Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting Schools in the London Borough of Harrow, England, in the summer ter m of 1995. Subjects and methods The base population were all 2,300 8-year-old school c hildren in Harrow. A cluster sampling of schools based on quotas from all p ostcode areas in Harrow was used. Data were collected through interviews wi th the children. Main outcome measures Prevalence of previous toothache; prevalence of tooth ache in the previous 4 weeks; prevalence of toothache in the previous 4 wee ks which resulted in a visit to the dentist, in stopping playing, eating, s leeping, going to school and taking painkillers. Results Of the 664 sample of children in the participating schools, 589 wer e interviewed (88.7%). The frequency of previous toothache was 47.5% (95% C I, 44-52) and dental pain caused crying in 17.7% (95% CI, 15-21) of childre n. 7.6% (95% CI, 5-11) of children had pain in the previous 4 weeks (45 chi ldren). Among these 45 children, this recent pain resulted in a visit to th e dentist in 41.9% (19 children, ie 3.2% of all children), in stopping Flay ing in 26.7% (12 children, ie 2.0% of all children), eating in 73.3% (33 ch ildren, ie 5.6%, of all children), sleeping in 31.1% (14 children, ie 2.4%, of all children) and in going to school in 11.1% (5 children, ie 0.8% of a ll children). Conclusion Toothache in children is a sizeable problem in Harrow and had su bstantial consequences for children and their guardians. Freedom from disab ling dental pain/discomfort is an outcome indicator of oral health and coul d be used as an explicit goal by dental systems. It is important to note ho wever, that the present study did not assess the extent to which the dental pain was associated with avoidable dental problems as opposed to normal ph ysiological processes. It is important that future work try and separate th e prevalence of dental pain caused by physiological from avoidable patholog ical factors. In addition, future work is needed to assess how effectively and efficiently dental services are responding to people suffering with den tal pain.