Pain Scale Description

Pain, sometimes referred to as the fifth vital sign, is an important yet sometimes difficult aspect of patient management. The inability of a patient to communicate, or the subjectivity of pain, can make assessing and alleviating it challenging. Pain scales are commonly used, and while there is no "gold standard," several are popular.

Visual Analog Scale

• Patients presented with a visual analog pain scale mark a spot on a 10-centimeter line that corresponds to the amount of pain they feel. The scale goes from "No pain" on the left to "Pain as bad as possible" on the right. The patient's mark is measured from the left in millimeters.

The Faces Pain Scale

• The Faces, or Wong-Baker, pain scale is mostly used for pediatric patients. The scale shows six cartoon faces with varying expressions ranging from smiling on the left side of the scale to sad or crying on the right. The patient is instructed to indicate which face best represents how she is feeling.

The Numeric Pain Scale

• The zero-to-ten numeric pain scale is just that: on a scale of zero to ten, zero indicating no pain and ten indicating severe pain, a patient rates how he feels. This scale can be further broken down into increments to assist the patient in accurately assessing pain: 1 to 3 is mild pain, 4 to 6 is moderate and 7 to 10 is severe.