EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT OF PER-OPERATIVE DENTAL PAIN IN CHILDREN AT THE CASABLANCA DENTAL CONSULTATION AND TREATMENT CENTER

Background: Dental pain is one of the most dreadful pains, given its intensity, frequency, complications and impact on daily activities. This requires its fast diagnosis, evaluation and relief. Moreover, intraoperative pain must be managed quickly and effectively, especially in pediatric dentistry where the patient's confidence and anxiety level are strongly related to pain and its apprehension.In this sense, a study was conducted among children treated in the pedodontics department of the Dental Consultation and Treatment Center of Casablanca (DCTC), with the aim of determining the causes, characteristics, and means of managing intraoperative dental pain in children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on children aged 4 to 15 years consulting the dental emergency department and the pediatric dentistry department of the Dental Consultation and Treatment Center of Casablanca and whose care was provided in the same center by 5th year dental students. Data collection was performed using a four-part questionnaire. The first part defined the sociodemographic variables as well as the child's general condition, the second part assessed the child's behavior, the third part described the intraoperative pain, specifying its origin and assessment, and the fourth part specified the modalities of its management. Pain assessment was performed according to the recommendations of the National Agency for Health Accreditation and Evaluation, depending on the age of the patients. Results: This study showed that intraoperative pain was felt mainly during anesthesia (for 39.9% of the population), and more particularly during truncal anesthesia in 74.7% of the cases. The most painful dental procedure was related to the treatment of mandibular molars, especially during tooth extractions with 35.1%. The management of intraoperative pain consisted in the majority of cases of an increase in the dose of anesthesia. Conclusion: Dental pain in children is a subjective phenomenon that is difficult to identify, assess, and understand in its entirety, which is one of the major concerns of odontologists. This implies that the management of intraoperative pain in pedodontics must be concerned with understanding the pain in its entirety, correctly assessing this pain using scales adapted to the age and general condition of the patient, dissociating it from anxiety, which is sometimes difficult to achieve, and knowing how to manage it correctly intraoperatively.