Pain and chewing sensitivity during fixed orthodontic treatment in extraction and non-extraction patients

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in pain perception and chewing sensitivity between extraction and non-extraction patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Thirty orthodontic patients (11 males, 19 females) were included in this study who were classified as extraction (n=15; 6 males, 9 females) and non-extraction patients (n=15; 7 males, 8 females). The mean age of patients were 15.10±1.83 years in non-extraction group and 15.44±0.75 years in extraction group. The patients were asked to complete the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) questionnaire and they were asked to mark the presence or absence of sensitivity during 7 days after the first arch wire placement. Pain intensity comparison between groups was performed using the Mann-Whitney U test. The Friedman test was used to analyze within-group differences over time. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in pain scores between the groups. Pain levels significantly decreased between day 1 and day 3 in both the groups. No differences were found in the chewing sensitivity between the non-extraction and extraction groups. CONCLUSION: No difference in the pain perception was observed between the extraction and non-extraction patients during the 7 days after arch wire placement.