Purpose:
Investigate incidence of persistent tooth pain after root canal therapy
Materials/Methods:
- Persistent tooth pain defined as >6 months after endodontic therapy.
- Procedures included pulp capping, partial pulpectomy, pulpectomy, NSRCT, SRCT, and retreatment.
- Pain could be spontaneous, or provoked by biting, palpation, or percussion.
- At least 6 month follow up.
- 770 articles found and 26 met inclusion criteria. 5,777 teeth with 2996 follow up (52%).
Results:
168 teeth with pain and concluded the rate of persistent tooth pain as 5.3%.
Prospective studies found a rate of 7.6%
Retrospective studies found a rate of 0.9%.
Clinical Significance:
The rate of persistent tooth pain for 6 months after any endodontic therapy is about 5%.