Oral and Dental Pain Management

Abstract

Pain has been defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with or resembling that associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Pets often experience the same pain as people; however, dental pain is often overlooked, discounted, or unseen/hidden in patients, as the inability to communicate does not negate the possibility that a human or a nonhuman animal experiences pain. This article discusses types of pain and the methods and medications available to treat and prevent oral pain.

Keywords: N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist; alpha-2 agonist; constant rate infusion (CRI)‌; local anesthetics; locoregional block; multimodal analgesia; nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID); opioids; pain.