Control of pain from braces with patient advice sheets. COPPAS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A randomised clinical trial of advice regarding acupressure or NSAIDs for the control of orthodontic pain
IRAS ID
221465
Contact name
David Bearn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
TASC Research & Development Office
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 1 days
Research summary
A study to investigate whether the use of an acupressure technique will result in the reduction of pain after orthodontic treatment procedures
Acupuncture is a form of treatment that involves the insertion of very fine needles into parts of the body which correspond to acupuncture sites. A variation of this is acupressure, which involves direct digital pressure onto an acupuncture site in order to achieve pain relief. Various studies have found acupressure to be effective in the management of pain recommending it to be considered as an alternative to oral analgesics.
The subjects will be orthodontic patients aged 12-25 years of age who are ready to commence orthodontic treatment in the form of fixed appliances. They will be eligible for inclusion in the study if they meet the following inclusion criteria:
i) aged 12-25
ii) malocclusion requiring treatment
iii) scheduled to begin orthodontic treatment
iv) requires fixed appliance in 2 arches.Subjects who have had previous orthodontic treatment, current use of analgesics, contraindications to the use of NSAIDs, previous acupressure experience or are pregnant will be excluded.
It will be a single centred randomised controlled trial with subjects recruited from Dundee Dental Hospital. The total number of subjects recruited will be 36 with the acupressure and NSAID group containing 18 subjects each. In the acupressure group the subjects will be advised to use a definitive acupressure point on the back of the hand region to control orthodontic pain. In the NSAID group the subjects will be given an advice sheet and advised to take Ibuprofen for the orthodontic pain. The subjects will be asked to us a pain diary to record their experiences using visual analogue scales. The pain diary will be completed from 4 hours to 7 days after treatment after insertion of the first orthodontic archwire.REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
17/WS/0129
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jun 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion