• Question: Is there a threshold for pain? If there is, what is it?

    Asked by bonfilia to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 17 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      This is a great question @bonfilia
      I don’t know much about pain research, but when I was at University we did and experiment to see whether alcohol and laughing gas affected our pain thresholds (that was a fun afternoon – we were the participants!).

      Everyone’s pain threshold (the point at which something starts to hurt) is slightly different, and indeed we found that people could take more pressure before they said it started to hurt, when they were drunk, so alcohol increased their threshold for pain.

      So to answer your question – we do have a threshold for pain, it’s the point where some sensation on your body moves from being just a feeling, to actually hurting you. It can’t be defined as a number though, because it’s different for everyone, and can be altered by the state that you’re in at the time.

      Hope this answers your question 🙂

    • Photo: Rachael Ward

      Rachael Ward answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hi bonfilia

      I agree with Suzi, everyone has a different pain threshold. I’ve seen some studies that women have higher thresholds than men – this is thought to help them go through child birth! Also, I’ve heard that you have a lower pain threshold in the morning so perhaps its best to go to the dentist in the afternoon!

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