At my doctor’s office, every exam room has a poster depicting the pain scale. From zero (no pain) to ten (the worst pain), each number also has a face depicting an expression from happy to tearful.
This is officially known as the Wong-Baker FACES scale for pain measurement. It was developed by two pediatric specialists — Donna Wong and Connie Morain Baker — to help children assess and manage their pain. There are other scales to help patients assess their pain levels, like the McGill Pain Questionnaire, which asks (adult) patients pick from groups of words to describe their pain.
Pain is relative. The worst pain YOU have ever experienced may or may not rank the same for someone else. But you’re the only person who has to deal with your pain, and I’m the only person who has to deal with my pain — whether or not it would be tolerable to someone else is not all that important.
There are different ways to describe and measure pain — and the more accurate you can be, the better your health care professional will be able to help you. That’s part of why pain scales are useful. If your pain ranks eight out of ten, that’s pretty bad. Pain management may be needed before the problem itself can be sorted out.
Pain is the body’s way of saying that something is wrong. The greater the pain, the more wrong something may be! But pain can cloud your thinking and judgement. It can overwhelm other symptoms and sensations.
Pain measurement scales are useful because they can help us express the sensations we’re feeling. Does it make you want to cry? Is the pain throbbing, pinching, or burning? Is it a dull ache, or a sharp sensation?
The other day, my doctor asked me if a particular pain felt like an infection. And I stopped to think about it. Infection — at least in my perception — feels hot, and swollen, and achy. The pain I was experiencing at the time didn’t feel like that. It felt sharp and stabbing. Having one idea — infection — to compare to my current pain helped me better express it. That, in turn, helped the doctor decide how to treat me.
It would be easier if doctors could read minds… but they can’t. So tools like pain measurement scales are great for helping patients express what’s going on!