Incidence of post-operative pain after single visit and multiple visit root canal treatment: A randomized controlled trial

AIM: To compare the incidence and intensity of post-obturation pain after single or multi visit root canal treatment on single rooted teeth in a randomized controlled trial. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred patients requiring root canal treatment on permanent single rooted teeth (both vital and non vital) were included. The patients were assigned randomly into two groups of 100 patients each. The teeth in Group1 (n = 100) were obturated at the first visit, whilst those in Group 2 (n = 100) were obturated in a second visit 7 days later. A modified Heft Parker visual analog scale was used to measure pre-operative pain and post-obturation pain at 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours after obturation. Independent-sample T-tests was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Twelve patients were excluded from the study as they failed to follow the scheduled revisit. Data were obtained from the remaining 188 patients. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence and intensity of post-obturation pain experienced by two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence and intensity of post-obturation pain experience following one- or two-visit root canal treatment on teeth with a single canal were not significantly different.