Pain scales
Pain is a subjective feeling, and people respond differently to their pain. A pain scale is an attempt to assess the degree of pain you are feeling. You may be asked to describe your pain in words as: no pain, mild, moderate or severe.
Also, you may be asked to say or mark on a line a number from one to ten indicating how severe your pain is.
However, because pain is subjective, and each person has a different past experience of pain, these scales do not allow one person's score to be compared to another person. They are most useful in monitoring an individual's response to treatment, by showing a change in that person's score over time.