Effectiveness of Prophylactic Celebrex and Celecoxib Administration for Controlling Post-endodontic Pain: A Randomized Double-blind Clinical Trial

Introduction Pain control following root canal therapy is a challenging issue in dentistry. This double-blind study aimed to compare the effectiveness of Celebrex and celecoxib used to control post-endodontic pain. Material and Methods In this randomized, double-blind study, 43 patients with symptomatic teeth were selected. The subjects gave their consent for a prophylactic oral administration of 400 mg of celecoxib, 400 mg of Celebrex, or a placebo before root canal therapy. A 170-mm Visual Analog Scale was used to measure the pain intensity immediately postoperative and at time intervals of 4, 8, 12, 24, and 48 hours after treatment. The SPSS version 16.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, USA) was used for statistical data analysis. The data were subjected to Mann-Whitney and Freidman tests. The statistical significance was set at 0.05. Results There was no significant difference between celecoxib and placebo group at any time (P>0.05). Whereas the mean pain score was lower for the celecoxib versus placebo group at all time points. The prophylactic Celebrex administration significantly reduced post-endodontic pain at all time points after initiation of root canal therapy, compared with the celecoxib and placebo administration. Conclusion The obtained results recommended that Celebrex may be more effective than celecoxib for the management of postoperative endodontic pain.