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The Dental Professional's Potential Biases Toward Pain Management Program

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Objectives

Upon completing this course, the dental professional should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the following:

1. Identify the multidimensional aspect of pain.
2. Discuss the Fifth Vital Sign as part of pain management program.
3. Compare the Pain Assessment Tools.
4. Name the four phases of nociceptive pain.
5. Discuss the Fifth Vital Sign as part of pain management program.
6. Name the dental professional’s potential biases toward pain.
7. Components of a quality, pain management program.

Introduction The purpose of this educational activity is to introduce pain as the fifth vital sign and increase the dental professionals’ understanding of pain intensity rating scales.

Understanding Pain

Understanding Pain. Pain is subjective in its measure, self-reported by patients and defined by the individual. There is evidence that pain is under assessed and under treated, especially in highly sensitive people and vulnerable populations such as the elderly, individuals who ‘English is a second language’ and people with disabilities.

Pain affects all aspects of life, physical, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual. Clinicians in order to be effective need to understand these many aspects of pain management.

Definitions:

Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does. (McCaffery, 1968).

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in

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