The Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale is a tool that uses a combination of faces, numbers, and words to help a person effectively communicate the severity of their physical pain.
The Wong–Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale is a pain scale that was developed by Donna Wong and Connie Baker. The scale shows a series of faces ranging from a happy face at 0, or "no hurt", to a crying face at 10, which represents "hurts like the worst pain imaginable".
The Wong-Baker Faces Pain Scale can be confidently used by children as young as 3 years old. It is assumed that children at this age should be able to distinguish fascial expressions related to pain, and identify the severity.
Learn how the Wong-Baker FACES Pain Scale uses six facial expressions to rate pain 0–10. Free to use, validated for children and adults, and takes under 30s
A concern arises with children who do not cry with pain or are embarrassed to choose a face with tears. Although no pain-rating scale is efficient for all children, the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale seems to work best. Adults with language barriers also benefit from this type of pain scale.
The Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale was developed in 1983 by Donna Wong and Connie Baker to provide a reliable, child-friendly method for assessing pain severity, particularly in pediatric populations.
For simplicity’s sake, instead of saying Faces Pain Scale-Revised, it was renamed the Wong-Baker Faces or the Wong-Baker Scale (refer to Figure 2). The Wong-Baker Faces have six faces in total, in contrast to the original seven.
This implementation of the Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale (Wong & Baker, 1988) is an adaptation of the "Faces Rating Scale" which is a picture projection technique for assessing child pain which utilizes 6 illustrations of faces faces that a child in pain uses to best describe their present level of pain.