Development and Validation of Chinese Version of Dental Pain Screening Questionnaire

Abstract

Introduction

Dental pain is one of the most prevalent oral complaints. This study aimed to establish a Chinese version of Dental Pain Screening Questionnaire (DePaQ) to help classify patients into three groups of dental pain diseases (group 1, reversible pulpitis and dentine hypersensitivity; group 2, acute periapical periodontitis and irreversible pulpitis; and group 3, pericoronitis).

Methods

The DePaQ was translated from English to Chinese. The clinical subjects (CS, n = 290) and nonclinical subjects (NS, n = 100) with dental pain were collected. The CS were randomly divided into two subsamples: CS1 (n = 203) and CS2 (n = 87). The Fisher discriminant functions of the final 13-item Chinese version of the DePaQ were obtained from the CS1 group, and discriminant validity was further verified in the CS2 and NS groups.

Results

The discriminant functions of the final 13-item DePaQ obtained from the CS1 group were capable of correctly distinguishing 93.1% and 89.0% cases of the CS2 and NS groups, respectively. In the CS2 group, the sensitivity for groups 1, 2, and 3 was 88.0%, 80.0%, and 83.0%, respectively, and the specificity was 95.0%, 95.0%, and 86.0%, respectively. In the NS group, the sensitivity for groups 1, 2, and 3 was 82.0%, 80.0%, and 86.0%, respectively, and the specificity was 91.0%, 97.0%, and 90.0%, respectively.

Conclusions

The Chinese version of DePaQ could help classify the three groups of dental pain diseases and guide medical treatment.