Pain is one of the most common reason for the patients to visit the dentist. The pain may be due to diseases or conditions of dental, oral, facial, and related structures(1,6). It is the dentist’s responsibility to diagnose the cause of pain. Pain during a dental procedure is well managed by sufficient local anaesthesia, while postoperative pain control is often insufficient due to inadequate pain relief or unacceptable side-effects(2). The most common and widely used drugs in management of pain in dentistry are NSAIDs for their analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic actions. This article intends to discuss the rationale in prescribing NSAIDs in dental practice in a concise way.(3)

Keywords : NSAIDS, pain, analgesic, cyclooxygenase, prostaglandin, acetaminophen, dentistry, dental pain