Pain Before, During and After Single-Visit Root Canal Therapy and Associated Factors

Introduction: Pain is one of the most important factors affecting patients' fear and anxiety in dental appointments. The aim of current study is to evaluate the pain experienced by patients before, during and after endodontic treatment. Materials and methods: This descriptive longitudinal study was performed on 100 patients aged 18-60 years old who referred to the department of endodontics of Guilan University of Medical Sciences. Age, gender, type of teeth and arch, pulpal condition, periapical status, and pre-treatment pain were recorded. The pain experienced during and 6, 12, 18, 24, 48 and 72 hours after Root Canal Therapy (RCT) was measured using VAS. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 21.0.  Results: The prevalence of post-operative pain in first 6 hours post treatment was 49%. The factors that significantly influenced patients’ pain were age (p=0.005) and pulp vitality (p =0.021 before treatment, p=0.001 during treatment). Conclusion: Age had a significant reverse relation with Post-operative Pain (POP) in vital teeth but it was not significant in non-vital teeth. Gender, type of teeth and arch, peri-apical status had no statistically significant relation with POP. Pain in vital teeth was significantly higher compared to non-vital teeth before and during RCT but not after treatment.