The Effects of Rapid Induction Analgesia (RIA), Hypnotic Susceptibility and the Severity of Discomfort on Reducing Dental Pain

Abstract

The study was designed to address three issues involved in hypnotic analgesia for dental pain: 1) The effectiveness of J. Barber's (1977) hypnotic procedure for producing analgesia in its usual form and a shortened form, 2) the relationship of hypnotic susceptibility to analgesic responsiveness, and 3) the effect of dental procedure discomfort level on hypnotic analgesia. Sixty unselected dental patients were administered either J. Barber's (1977) Rapid Induction Analgesia (RIA) or a shortened version of it (SI) before their dental treatment. Measures of hypnotic susceptibility were obtained as were dentists' ratings of the discomfort levels involved in the various dental procedures administered. The 52% success rate of the present study failed to replicate Barber's very high (99%) success rate, although procedural differences might explain the lower rate. RIA and SI were equally effective. Hypnotic susceptibility level did not relate significantly to success with hypnotic analgesia. The level of dental procedure discomfort was the clearest predictor of success with hypnotic analgesia. The greater the discomfort rating of a procedure the less likely that hypnotic analgesia would be successful.