Acupressure versus NSAID for relief of orthodontic pain : A randomized controlled clinical trial.

Aim: To compare ibuprofen and acupressure for pain relief after insertion of elastomeric orthodontic separators.

Materials and methods: A randomized control clinical trial was conducted in an orthodontic clinic. A total of 75 orthodontic patients aged 12-16 years participating in the study were randomly allocated to receive either 400 mg of oral ibuprofen, applying acupressure therapy, or no pain-relief approach. Pain scores were recorded on visual analog scales (10 cm) over a week at different times (4, 10, 18, 24 h, and 1 week). The margin of equivalence was defined as 10 mm.

Results: For all timepoints, the control group recorded the highest pain. For the ibuprofen and acupressure group, after 4 h, 18 h, and 1 week, no significant difference was noted. However, after 10 h, no significant difference in pain between the control and acupressure groups was noted and the ibuprofen group showed significantly lower pain. In the acupressure group, the highest pain was noted at 10 h. After this timepoint, pain progressively decreased with time and the lowest pain was noted after 1 week. In the control and ibuprofen groups, the highest pain was after 4 h, and then progressively decreased with time and the lowest pain was noted after 1 week.

Conclusions: There was no significant difference in pain perception between participants using ibuprofen or acupressure and both groups recorded significantly lower pain than the control group at most of the observed timepoints. Results support the analgesic effect of the acupressure approach.