British dental journal
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The effectiveness of pain relieving treatments given for acute dental pain has been evaluated after 24 hours in 172 patients who presented to a dental hospital emergency department. Patients were contacted by telephone the day after attendance and graded their pain on a scale from 1 (no pain) to 5 (pain much worse). ⋯ Overall, 87% received marked or total pain relief and this appeared to depend upon decompression of inflamed tissue. Oral administration of antimicrobial drugs alone produced little or no pain relief within 24 hours and anti-inflammatory analgesics offer poor pain control in these circumstances.