Pain is subjective and each person has a different experience of pain. A pain scale helps your doctor assess the degree of pain you are feeling. They are most useful in monitoring your response to treatment by showing a change in your score over time.
There are a number of different types of pain scales.
- You may be asked to describe your pain in words as: no pain, mild, moderate or severe.
- You may be asked to assess your pain by selecting a number from zero to ten indicating how severe your pain is.
- Another type of scale has a row of face drawings showing different expressions. This was developed for children and the child has to choose the face with an expression closest to how they feel.
