effect of corticosteroids on pain relief following root canal treatment: a systematic review

introduction: post-operative pain and flare-up may occur in up to 58% of patients following root canal treatment. the aim was to conduct a systematic review and a possible meta-analysis to determine the effect of glucocorticosteroid (gcs) on pain following root canal treatment. methods and materials: scopus, medline and central databases were searched up to 30 th january 2017 with broad key words. in addition, the reference lists in eligible papers and text books were hand-searched. assessment of the eligibility of papers and data extraction were performed by two independent reviewers. results: of 9891 articles, 18 were recruited as eligible papers. most of these papers showed pain reducing effect of gcs on post-endodontic pain. because of wide heterogeneity among the recruited papers, it was not possible to perform meta-analysis. conclusion: based on the results of this systematic review, there is a vast heterogeneity amongst articles regarding the use of gcs and their effect on post-operative pain after endodontic treatment. further investigations with similar methods and materials are needed before meta-analysis on the effect of gcs on post-operative pain following root canal treatment can be performed