Use of Analgesics in Postoperative Pain Control by Board Certified Pediatric Dentists

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate what post-operative analgesic agents if any, are provided by clinicians for their pediatric dental patients. The study will also evaluate the clinician's philosophy toward pain management in the child patient and look for trends in these philosophies, as well as trends in where they currently practice with regards to pain management and specific analgesic agents. Methods: An on-line survey (appendix A) was sent to gather data from board certified pediatric dentists. The American Board of Pediatric Dentistry (ABPD) website was used to obtain an e-mail directory of addresses of all registered ABPD members. This e-mail provided them with a link to an online survey site where they could access the survey. The online survey site used was surveymonkey.com. The survey was available on-line for 3 months. Mantel-Haenszel and chi-square tests were used to check the relationships of hours of patient care, years of experience, and region of the country with other items in the survey. Results: Responses were received from 210 (27%). The region distribution of the responders was compared to the region distribution of all pediatric dentists. The distributions were found to be similar (p=0.81 using a one-sample chi-square test). Conclusions: Ibuprofen and acetaminophen are recommended most frequently for over the counter (OTC) post-operative pain control by board certified pediatric dentists. Acetaminophen with codeine is prescribed most frequently for post-operative pain control by board certified pediatric dentists. The majority of board certified pediatric dentists adhere to the same philosophies with regard to post-operative pain management as taught in their respective post graduate programs.