Pain Index after endodontic treatment

• Published in: Revista Cubana de estomatologia Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 8 - 14
• Main Authors: Lilian Toledo Reyes, Katherin Cabrera García, Vielka González Ferrer, Miriam Machado Martínez
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editorial Ciencias Médicas 01-12-2018
• Subjects: dolor; endodoncia; tratamiento del conducto radicular
• ISSN: 0034-7507; 1561-297X

Introduction: Predicting the onset of pain after endodontic treatment favors the professionals' clinical judgment regarding this procedure. Objective: To construct an index that combines the factors associated to pain after endodontic treatment in the study population. Methods: A study was carried out in two stages, in Santo Domingo City, Villa Clara Province. The first stage was a cross-sectional analytic study over a random sample of 94 endodontic treatments, collected in the period of March to December of 2015, for the construction of the index. The second stage was also a cross-sectional study over a sample of 62 treatments, carried out between January and May, 2016, with the purpose of assess the discriminatory ability of the obtained index. The information was collected through interrogation, clinical and radiographic examination; the presence of pain after therapy was recorded. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. For the construction of the index, we obtained the Cramer's V statistic values of each variable. Results: Among the factors associated with pain after endodontic treatment pain, the most were described such as preoperative pain or inflammation, pain during treatment, the number of appointments, and a reduced root canal, with Cramer's V values of 0.848, 0.605, 0.595 and 0.592, respectively. The sensitivity of the proposed index was 83.3 %. Conclusions: In the studied population, a multi-causal relationship was observed in the factors associated with the presence of pain after endodontic treatment. The preoperative pain or inflammation was the most influential factor. This factors were synthesized by means of an index. The proposed index presents an adequate sensitivity, which contributes to establish more accurate judgments regarding the subsequent onset of pain.