TENS Therapy: Superior Adjunct for Post-Extraction Orthodontic Pain: Suggests Study
A recent clinical trial highlights that Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) effectively acts as a safe, non-invasive adjunct to pharmacological pain relief, significantly lowering discomfort 24 hours after orthodontic extractions for superior patient comfort, published in the Journal of Dental Sciences and Oral Rehabilitation in June 2025.
Therapeutic extraction of first premolars often triggers acute post-operative pain, typically peaking within four hours and impacting patient experience. While Aceclofenac is the standard treatment, its systemic side effects and metabolism issues necessitate the exploration of non-pharmacological adjuncts. To address this clinical gap, Singh et al. from the Institute of Dental Sciences, Bareilly, investigated whether Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) could effectively enhance conventional pharmacological pain management.
Therefore, the prospective split-mouth study enrolled 20 patients (ages 13–28) requiring bilateral first premolar extractions, utilizing a 15-day washout period to eliminate drug carryover. Excluding individuals with systemic comorbidities or traumatic extractions, the trial compared 100 mg aceclofenac monotherapy against an adjunct 15-minute TENS application. Pain perception was quantified via a 10 cm Visual Analog Scale (VAS) at five intervals between 2 and 48 hours postoperatively.
Key Clinical Findings of the Study Includes:
• Superior Overall Analgesia: The study confirmed that mean pain scores were consistently lower in the TENS-enhanced group across every monitored time period when compared to the control group.
• Significant 24-Hour Relief: Credit to the study for demonstrating a statistically significant reduction in discomfort at the 24-hour mark, where the TENS group scored 11.43 ± 3.29 compared to 15.33 ± 3.86 in the medication-only group.
• Delayed Peak Discomfort: While the control group experienced its maximum pain intensity at 6 hours post-extraction, the TENS group showed a delayed peak at 12 hours, indicating an altered pain perception profile.
• Safe Clinical Adjunct: No adverse reactions or tissue complications were reported throughout the trial, establishing TENS as a safe, easy-to-apply, and inexpensive non-invasive therapy.
• Consistent Long-term Reduction: Even at the 48-hour mark, the TENS group maintained lower average pain scores (6.94 ± 3.24) compared to the control group (11.00 ± 4.27), although this specific difference was not statistically significant.
The results suggest that integrating a 15-minute session of TENS therapy immediately after therapeutic extraction provides enhanced pain control compared to using 100 mg of aceclofenac in isolation, with the most notable benefits occurring at the one-day postoperative mark.
Thus, the study concludes hat dental professionals might find TENS to be a valuable and patient-friendly addition to their standard analgesic protocols to improve the post-operative recovery experience.
Although these initial results are encouraging, the investigation was limited by a relatively small sample size and a specific age range; therefore, future research involving larger, more diverse populations is needed to fully explore the long-term clinical utility of TENS in orthodontic practice.
Reference
Singh A, Anthwal A, Mittal U, Bhandari R, Bhattacharya P. Comparison of Perception of Pain Following Orthodontic Extraction with Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulations along with Pharmacological Method Over Only Pharmacological Method: A Clinical Trial. J Dent Sci Oral Rehab. 2025;16(1):1-5.
