Pain Reduction After Separators Placement

Data will be collected from subjects reporting to the department of orthodontics, Karachi Medical and Dental College. This study will be started after submission of the synopsis and after approval of the Ethical Review Committee. Following the placement of separators participant will be randomly assigned in to 2 groups.It is a parallel group randamization.In this study the topical gel (lignocaine ) and a sugar free gum that is commercially available is purchased from the local market. The composition of lignocaine gel is given .Manual allocation using sealed envelope during enrolment of patient in the study. This enabled approximately equal distribution of patients from each group. 1. st group: Topical gel (lignocaine gel) 2. nd group: chewing gum In our study all the participant were asked to fill the questionnaire. A written informed consent was acquired from all patients for inclusion in the study. In the topical gel group the patients were directed to apply the gel on the buccal free gingival margin of their first molar at one side when the separators are placed and reapply the gel every 8 hours . They were then requested to mark their level of pain at 2 and 8 hours and at 10 pm of the 2nd,3rd,5th and 7th day after the gel is being applied and mark it on the VAS form. The patients in the chewing gum group were advised to chew sugar free gum for 5 minutes immediately after separators were placed and at 8 hours interval. The patients were also advised and motivated not to take any additional analgesics. For measuring the perception of pain the most reliable method is the Visual Analog Scale (VAS).It is a psychometric pain response scale.VAS is a measurement instrument for subjective characters such as pain which cannot be measured directly. The VAS form was filled in by the patients at baseline after separator placement at 2 hours, at 8 hours , 24 hours, at 2nd day , 3rd day , 5th and 7th day after separator placement. When replying to the VAS performa , the patients were requested to state their severity of pain by marking a position along a calibrated straight continous line weighted at both ends by descriptive terminology with a happy face and a sad face and document the severity of pain when the jaws are at rest and during the biting activity.The degree of pain was determined solely , based on patients conviction through VAS cards and questionnaire .