Background: Pain is defined as both a sensory and an emotional experience. Acute postoperative tooth extraction pain is assessed and treated as a physiological (sensory) pain while chronic pain is a biopsychosocial problem. The purpose of this study was to assess whether psychological and social changes occur in the acute pain state. Methods: A biopsychosocial pain questionnaire was completed by 438 subjects (165 males, 273 females) with acute postoperative pain at 24 hours following the surgical extraction of teeth and compared with 273 subjects (78 males, 195 females) with chronic orofacial pain. Statistical methods used a k-means cluster analysis. Results: Three clusters were identified in the acute pain group: 'unaffected', 'disabled' and 'depressed, anxious and disabled'. Psychosocial effects showed 24.8 per cent feeling 'distress/suffering' and 15.1 per cent 'sad and depressed'. Females reported higher pain intensity and more distress, depression and inadequate medication for pain relief (p<0.001). Distress and depression were associated with higher pain intensity. The developed questionnaire had tested reliability (test-retest r=0.89) and estimated validity. Conclusion: Cluster analysis showed constituent groups with a range of psychosocial effects in acute postoperative dental extraction pain and is associated with an increase in pain intensity.

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Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the gold standard treatments used for cancer. Side effects from medical radiation can be significant, particularly external beam therapy to the breast, and head and neck regions causing fibrosis, secondary skin cancer, hair loss, oral mucositis and neuropathic pain. There is significant psychological stress, depression, anxiety and loss of self esteem particularly for female patients. Similar types of space radiation are known to damage the health of astronauts. Current treatments for scarring, tissue loss, hair loss and neuropathic pain are a high priority but inadequate. Regenerative medicine is a new and comprehensive approach to potentially treat complex medical conditions from radiation damage. Regenerative medicine combines a systematic evidence based approach with the use of herbal medicine, stem cells, peptides and 3D tissue engineering. These fields use sophisticated technology to identify the respective molecular mechanisms of upregulation and protection of healthy cells and down regulation of cancer cells. The regenerative medicine strategies of stem cells and plant polyphenols suggest there is significant potential for rapid clinical translation to alleviate the side effects associated with radiotherapy.