Abstract
Objective: To assess the intensity of orthodontic pain with and without the use of chewing gum during fixed orthodontic treatment in two groups of patients presenting at the Orthodontic Department of Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry, Karachi.
Methods: The study was conducted at the Orthodontic Department of Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry, Karachi, Pakistan. The sample population of this study was thirty adult patients who were planned to initiate fixed orthodontic appliance treatment. In this study, a parallel group clinical trial was conducted with two analogous groups, one was asked to chew gum following orthodontic bracket placement and second was asked not to chew gum. Up until the working wire was placed, the patients filled a questionnaire of Impact of Fixed Appliances after 24hrs and 1week. In order to analyze the intensity of pain, a visual analogue scale (VAS) was used.
Results: At the initial 24hrs, among both chewing gum and non chewing gum groups, the difference in median Total Impact Score was 2, which means there was considerable difference (p=0.034; Mann-Whitney U test). Whereas, the median difference of VAS among the two groups at 24 hours was also 2, also depicting there was considerable difference (p=0.03; Mann-Whitney U test). However, after 1 week, there was no significant difference in both groups.
Conclusion: Both the pain and impact of fixed orthodontic appliance was reduced by using chewing gum.