Prevalence and predictors of severe pain among patients with orofacial pain in a Nigerian Tertiary health facility.

Background: Although several studies on the pattern of oro-facial pain have been reported, none have been reported on the prevalence and risk factors of severe oro-facial pain. This study aims to determine the prevalence and predictors of severe oro-facial pain among patients in a Nigerian tertiary hospital.

Methodology: The prospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Oral Diagnosis of a Nigerian tertiary hospital from January to December 2023 on all consecutive patients who presented to the centre with orofacial pains. The data collected were age, gender, occupation, level of education and marital status. Other data collected were ethnicity, smoking, alcohol intake, location of pain, causes of pain, and pain severity. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. All data were analysed with SPSS version 26 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, US). A p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: The age range was 17-85 years with a mean age of 36.6 ±16.7 years. Almost two-thirds (64.1%) of the patients were females. Most (46.1%) of the patients were skilled workers. Almost half (48%) of the recruited patients were single. The prevalence of severe pain among patients with orofacial pain was 45.3%. There was no relationship between sociodemographic factors and the prevalence of severe orofacial pain except the ethnicity of the patients (p = 0.012). There was no association between clinical factors and severe orofacial pain (p>0.05).

Conclusion: The prevalence of severe pain among patients with orofacial pain was relatively high and this severity was only influenced by their ethnicity. It is therefore recommended that a high index of attention is given to orofacial pain patients and a reduction of waiting time for the same individuals.