Objective: Cultural or ethnic factors may play an important role in subjects' pain reports. The aim of the study was to compare the prevalence of orofacial pain symptoms between Finnish and Thai populations.
Materials and methods: The Finnish study population comprised the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966, of which 5696 subjects participated in the present study. The Thai sample consisted of 1501 randomly selected people living in 10 different districts in Bangkok. Data on orofacial pain was collected based on questionnaires.
Results: After adjusting for age, gender and education, the logistic regression analysis showed that Thai subjects had an increased risk for reporting oral pain (OR = 4.5, 95% CI = 3.7-5.4), tooth pain (OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.8-2.4) and pain in the face (OR = 1.5, 95% CI = 1.2-1.7).
Conclusions: It can be concluded that Thai people report more orofacial pain symptoms than Finnish subjects. Cross-cultural factors exist in the background of reporting pain symptoms in the oral and facial area.
Keywords: cross-cultural comparison; orofacial pain; prevalence studies; temporomandibular disorders.