Cerebral Evoked Potentials to Noxious Dental Stimulation: Relationship to Subjective Pain Report

The relationship between subjective pain report and dental evoked potentials (DEP) was evaluated in 11 subjects. Brief electrical shocks were delivered to healthy, unfilled teeth and evoked potentials were recorded at three levels of pain intensity. Amplitude of major components increased with increasing pain report. Latency of major components did not change with pain report. Since intradental nerve endings consist mainly of high‐threshold fibers generally associated with nociception, these results suggest that the DEP may be a useful physiological index of the acute pain experience in man.