Pain scales are tools that can help health care providers diagnose or measure a patients pain's intensity. The most widely used scales are visual, verbal, numerical or some combination of all three forms.

Many pain scales include a use of cartoon faces with different expressions. These are often useful when used with children.

In 1999, the Veteran's Administration adopted the slogan "Pain is the fifth vital sign", and encouraged greater use of pain scales in initial diagnoses.

Common scales include:

• FACES Pain Rating Scale (Wong/Baker, scale is from 0-5)
  • Faces Pain Scale - Revised (FPS-R) (Hicks, C., scale is from 1-10)

  Not all scales are measured on a single axis. For example, the "Brief Pain Inventory" is performed in interview form to identify how pain affects different aspects of the patients life.

  External links

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  • Wong scale
  • Example of scale
  • VA -- 'pain as the fifth vital sign'