Uso de metáforas para expressar a dor de dente: um estudo na área de antropologia da saúde

Abstract

This article aims to identify, through the metaphors used by patients to express the toothache, how the social representations are generated on this issue. The research was conducted with patients who sought emergency care of the discipline Clínica Integrada de Atenção Primária IV – CIAP IV of the Faculdade de Odontologia, UFMG and the Dental Center in Santa Luzia - MG. People who attended the emergency care and the complaint was not toothache, were excluded, as well as children. The interviews were conducted with 35 individuals of both sexes and were analyzed from the qualitative analysis, in which were created several categories for different responses. Social representations of toothache are generated as people find in life experience one word to decode such pain. Sensations and feelings already experienced by them, even the imaginary become a metaphor for trying to explain what causes them suffering. A toothache is often compared with the worst feelings ever experienced, as the pain of childbirth, which reflects the intensity of this pain. The conclusion is that the young population presents immense suffering.