Behavioural measurement of postoperative pain after oral surgery

The amount and type of postoperative analgesia prescribed depends on the clinician’s judgement of the patient’s need. Among other factors, this judgement is likely to be based on the patient’s behaviour. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the validity of using behavioural measures to provide information about a patient’s experience of pain during the early stages of recovery from oral surgery under general anaesthesia. Behavioural measures were not valid measures of acute postoperative pain, which suggests that while clinicians may build a better picture of a patient’s experience of pain by including behavioural observation in their range of assessments, they should not rely on them when judging a patient’s need for analgesia. The results also show differences between the sexes in their reaction to pain. Significantly more women than men showed signs of pain, despite little difference in self-rating pain scores.