I think pain scales can be very useful. As others have said, pain scales are
widely used in the pain literature (yes, there is a  journal called "Pain").
For example, years ago I was speaking on the phone to a friend of mine. Her
nine month old baby had just spent a week in the Children's Hospital with
orbital cellulitis, and had received lots of antibiotics. My friend was
exhausted, of course, b/c she had been living in the hospital too. She
mentioned that suddenly her nipples were painful and she had pain shooting
into her breasts. Oh no, thrush, I thought! Do I need to rush over with my
thrush handout, etc? So, I asked her my usual question: "If 0 is no pain and
10 is the worst pain you've ever had, how would rate this pain?"
She said "Oh, just 1 or 2". Now, I still thought that the pain was due to
thrush, but there was no urgency. I was correct in predicting that the pain
would quickly settle with antifungal treatment.
However, women who are referred to me with nipple/breast pain frequently
describe the pain as 8 or 9 out of 10. They do not have "SORE NIPPLES".
Please lets stop using the term "sore nipples". (perhaps I'll say this once
a week from now on.....)
Lisa Amir
MBBS, MMed, IBCLC in Melbourne, Australia - tired as usual on a Friday
night.

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