How to Use a Pain Scale to Assess Your Pain Tina Donvito Replay Video Measuring pain If you've ever had a painful injury or dealt with chronic pain, your health care provider may have asked you to describe it: Is it sharp or dull? Sudden or ongoing? The hardest of all to answer, especially to a stranger like a nurse or a doctor, can be, "How bad is it?" Trying to explain your pain can be painful itself. "Pain, for the most part, is a subjective experience," says Gregory A. Liguori, MD, director of the department of anesthesiology, critical care and pain management and anesthesiologist-in-chief at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York.