Differences in postoperative pain severity among four ethnic groups

Abstract

Subjects (N = 543) reporting on acute postoperative dental pain were classified into four major ancestral groups: Asian (N = 96), black American (N = 65), European (N = 296), and Latino (N = 88). Pain severity was measured using a 10-cm visual analogue scale following a standardized operative procedure. The subjects of European descent reported significantly less severe pain than those of black American or Latino descent. They also reported less pain than Asians, although this finding did not reach significance. Evaluation of covariates, including gender, age, education, generation in the United States, and difficulty of the surgical extraction, demonstrated that gender was significant, with men reporting less pain than women regardless of ancestry. Possible implications of these findings are discussed in terms of potential differences in physiology, in addition to social learning.