# Predictors of Analgesic Consumption in Orthodontic Patients
## 4 Discussion
### Predictors for Analgesic Consumption  
Age, as one of the predictors for analgesic consumption, might be explained by the fact that as people get older, they are more used to controlling pain with analgesics, and less willing to put up with pain. The younger patients, besides the fact that they are not so used to controlling the pain with analgesics, are not able to take analgesics themselves, the analgesics have to be administered by their parents. Therefore, the observed difference in analgesic consumption between the patients of different ages. The literature is scarce regarding the topic of the present study. Regarding the association between the pain intensity and age, controversial results can be found [13; 14; 15]. In our study, both age and pain intensity were investigated separately, therefore the relationship between the intensity of pain and age would not have impacted the investigation. The higher the intensity of pain, the more likely patients were to alleviate the pain with analgesics. Even though the average pain level on the first day of treatment of or \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Parameter** & **B** & **S.E.** & **Wald** & **df** & **_p_** & **OR** & **95\% C.I.** \\ \hline Gender & & 0.670 & 0.290 & 5.335 & 1 & 0.021 & 1.955 & 1.107–3.454 \\ Age & & 134 & 0.031 & 18.855 & 1 & 0.000 & 1.144 & 1.076–1.215 \\ Intensity of pain & & \(-\)0.392 & 0.059 & 44.072 & 1 & 0.000 & 0.676 & 0.602–0.758 \\ Frontal & \(-\)1.624 & 0.640 & 6.435 & 1 & 0.011 & 0.197 & 0.056–0.691 \\ \multirow{3}{*}{Localization of the pain} & Posterior & \(-\)1.261 & 0.692 & 3.318 & 1 & 0.069 & 0.283 & 0.073–1.101 \\  & All teeth & \(-\)2.038 & 0.639 & 10.190 & 1 & 0.001 & 0.130 & 0.037–0.455 \\ Constant & 2.303 & 0.606 & 14.460 & 1 & 0.000 & 10.000 & & \\ Pain on chewing & & \(-\)0.635 & 0.300 & 4.472 & 1 & 0.034 & 0.530 & 0.294–0.955 \\ Pain at rest & & \(-\)0.965 & 0.274 & 12.372 & 1 & 0.000 & 0.381 & 0.223–0.652 \\ Pain at night & & \(-\)0.739 & 0.396 & 3.487 & 1 & 0.062 & 0.478 & 0.220–1.037 \\ Tingling & & \(-\)0.502 & 0.315 & 2.546 & 1 & 0.111 & 0.605 & 0.326–1.122 \\ Dull pain & & \(-\)0.408 & 0.282 & 2.087 & 1 & 0.149 & 0.665 & 0.382–1.157 \\ Sharp pain & & \(-\)0.968 & 0.340 & 8.125 & 1 & 0.004 & 0.380 & 0.195–0.739 \\ Pulsating pain & & \(-\)1.256 & 0.329 & 14.552 & 1 & 0.000 & 0.285 & 0.149–0.543 \\ Headache & & \(-\)1.596 & 0.411 & 15.043 & 1 & 0.000 & 0.203 & 0.091–0.454 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Variables tested with univariable analysis whose \(p\) values were less than 0.25 and were therefore included in the further analysis. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Parameter** & **B** & **S.E.** & **Wald** & **df** & **p** & **OR** & **95\% C.I.** \\ \hline Age & 0.133 & 0.035 & 14.184 & 1 & 0.000 & 1.142 & 1.066–1.224 \\ Intensity of pain & \(-\)0.367 & 0.067 & 30.166 & 1 & 0.000 & 0.693 & 0.608–0.790 \\ Headache & \(-\)1.376 & 0.494 & 7.760 & 1 & 0.005 & 0.253 & 0.096–0.665 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Parameters associated with analgesic consumption based on the final model of the logistic regression. thodontic patients was around 4, some of the patients experienced stronger pain. Almost 12% of patients reported a high pain level (8-10 on the VNS scale). Previous studies have also reported that analgesic intake correlated with pain intensity scores during orthodontic treatment [12; 16]. This predictive factor was anticipated, therefore it was set as a null hypothesis. Orthodontic pain sometimes reflects on the head, and patients report having headaches. This investigation reported that these patients are more likely to consume analgesics than patients without headaches if the two other factors are the same. In the present literature, the influence of headaches on analgesic consumption in orthodontic patients has not been investigated so far.