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| Year : 2006 | Volume
: 4
| Issue : 7 | Page : 43-47 |
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The use of complementary and alternative medicine therapies for the self-treatment of oral pain among residents of rural communities of Polavaram Mandai, Andhra Pradesh
V Sudhakar, BR Ashok Kumar, AG Harikiran
Dept. of Preventive and Community Dentistry, Gout. Dental College, Fort, Bangalore, India
Correspondence Address:
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
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Background: As oral pain, as well as pain in general is a public health problem. self-medication and non-doctor prescription of drugs are common in rural India.
Objectives: To obtain data on prevalence's of Oral pain and its self-treatment one month prior to the study and to obtain infonnation on use of Complementary/Alternative medicine therapies for the treatment of Oral pain among the residents of rural communities of Polavaram mandai, Andhra Pradesh.
Methods: Design: Cross-sectional population study. Setting: Rural areas of Polavaram Mandai, Andhra Pradesh, India. Participants: A sample of 430 adults aged 16-75 yrs of who 404 responded. Method of data collection: Data collected by using a semi-structured questionnaire through interview.
Results: Of the participants 39.6% of them experienced some form of oral pain. Among those who experienced oral pain 68% of them took some form of self -medication and majority (72%) of them used CAM therapies as self-medication for their oral pain. CONCLUSION: Oral pain is a common symptom experienced by more than one-third of the study population. Since majority of them are using CAM therapies as a choice of self-treatment ,further research into implications of CAM therapies is required. |
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