Effectiveness of orthodontic treatment pain control: a randomized and controlled trial

The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the analgesic effectiveness of ibuprofen, actemaninophen and chewing gum on orthodontic pain reduction. The secondary objective was to assess the use of chewing gum as a non-pharmacological alternative for pain control after initial archwire placement. One hundred and six patients were consecutively selected, signed the Free and Post-Informed Term of Consent, and randomly allocated in a ratio of 1:1:1: 1 at four sample groups: a) ibuprofen; b) acetaminophen; c) chewing gum; d) control group. Patients on the ibuprofen and acetaminophen group were instructed to ingest 400 mg and 500 mg respectively of the drugs immediately after the initial archwire placement and every 6 hours for one week if the pain persisted. The subjects on the chewing gum group were instructed to chew a tablet of gum (Trident®-Mondelez, Bauru-SP, Brazil) for five minutes after the initial archwire placement and five minutes every 6 hours for one week if the pain persisted. The control group subjects received no method of pain control. They were required to report the use of any analgesic throughout the trial period. The patients registered their experienced pain while at mandible rest position (spontaneous pain) and at maximum intercuspation (pain at mastication) in 100mm Visual Analogic Scales (VAS), starting at "no pain" and ending at "unbearable pain", at T1-2 hours, T2-24 hours, T3-2 days, T4-3 days, T5-7 days, and T6-21 days after bonding of tubes and brackets 0.022"x0.028", edgewise Roth prescription from 1.6 to 2.6 and nickel-titanium 0.014"achwire placement. VAS data were collected by one previously calibrated evaluator (Sx= 1.38%). Kruskal Wallis test was applied for intragroup analysis and Mann Whitney U post hoc for between groups analysis, with a 95% interval of confidence and 5% of significance level and Bon Ferroni penalizations. Thus, there were no statistically significant differences at pain relief among subjects from ibuprofen, acetaminophen and control groups. But subjects in the chewing gum group experienced statistically significant pain relief when compared to the control group.