Dental Discomfort Questionnaire: correlated with clinical manifestations of advanced dental caries in young children

Introduction: Pain is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. The assessment of pain in children is a challenge for health care professionals, as their cognitive capacities are still underdeveloped, so indirect ways of assessing pain are of great importance. Aim and Objectives: The present study was carried out to assess the correlation between the dental caries experience and Dental Discomfort Questionnaire (DDQ) in children aged between 2 to 5 years. Materials and Method: The study sample consisted of sixty children, aged between 2 to 5 years. A self- structured questionnaire recording their demographic details and family structure, was given to the parents / guardians along with DDQ, which is to be filled in all aspects. Each child was examined for recording dental caries experience using the WHO criteria (1997) and advanced dental caries were assessed using the PUFA / pufa scale. Results: The study revealed that all the sixty children suffered from dental caries but only fifty percent of them reported having toothache. The mean DDQ scores and DMFT scores were 4.27 ± 3.03 and 7.13 ± 5.24, respectively. A statistically significant positive correlation was observed between the DDQ scores and dental caries (r = 0.40, p< 0.05). Conclusion: As children face difficulty in reporting the exact nature of dental pain, the DDQ seems to be an effective and functional instrument which can be used by the parents to recognize toothache in their children.