Review of dental pain--histology and physiology.
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Direct pulp capping of carious-exposed pulp was performed on 44 teeth. We evaluated the success rates of these cases, and analyzed the relationships between the success rates and their clinical findings. Furthermore, we examined the length of time necessary for adequate postoperative follow-up. The success rate in this study was 81.8%. Age of the patients, type of teeth, responses to thermal stimuli and percussion, and the diameter of pulpal exposure had no bearing on the success rate. However, the degree of bleeding on pulpal exposure was related to the success rate (p = 0.042). The success rates of cases in which postoperative follow-up periods were 3 to 18 months were similar (80 to 83%), whereas those with follow-up for 21 months (91.7%) and 24 months (100%) showed higher success rates. These results showed that direct pulp capping was applicable to carious-exposed pulp, and the degree of bleeding is indicative of the prognosis of this treatment. The length of time necessary for adequate postoperative follow-up was suggested to be 21 months.
Slow growth calcium hydroxide apexification may be clinically impractical in some instances. This case report describes a technique and rationale for single-step use of tricalcium phosphate as an apical plug in an immature permanent root. This method permitted immediate canal obturation and placement of the permanent coronal restoration. A 7-yr follow-up confirmed that this type of apexification could be successful.
A case is presented that demonstrates successful management of a maxillary canine with dens invaginatus (Oehlers' type 3 invagination) with associated chronic periradicular periodontitis and a vital pulp. Debridement and obturation of the invaginated space resulted in resolution of the associated periradicular radiolucency. Pulp vitality was retained after endodontic treatment of the invagination.
Patients who when initially seen have pain of endodontic origin have a higher incidence of posttreatment pain than those who are pain-free pretreatment. The purpose of this study was to compare two methods of treatment--pulpectomy alone or pulpectomy with trephination--for the reduction of posttreatment pain in patients presenting with acute periradicular pain of pulpal origin. Seventeen patients with pretreatment pain were studied. Eleven received a pulpectomy to the radiographically determined working length. Six patients received a pulpectomy and trephination using a #4 round bur through a vertical incision. Visual analog scales were used preoperatively to measure pain intensity and unpleasantness, and postoperatively to measure intensity, unpleasantness, and pain relief at 4, 8, 16, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h. Analysis of preoperative data showed no difference between control and experimental groups. Posttreatment, at 4 h, the trephination group reported significantly more pain intensity and unpleasantness and less pain relief than the control group. Pulpectomy alone provided significantly better postoperative pain relief at 4 h compared with pulpectomy with trephination. At no time interval did the trephination group have less pain than the group without trephination.
Effective pain management of the endodontic emergency patient is often a problem. Ketorolac tromethamine is the first nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug available for intramuscular injection in the United States. Although its analgesic efficacy is comparable with opiates after intramuscular injection, to date no study has evaluated its efficacy after intraoral periapical injection. Fifty-two endodontic emergency patients were injected (injection routes = intraoral infiltration/intramuscular deltoid) on a double-blind basis with either: (i) placebo/placebo, (ii) 30 mg ketorolac/placebo, (iii) placebo/30 mg ketorolac, or (iv) 2% mepivicaine with 1:20 K levonordefrin/placebo. Infiltration injection of ketorolac at on oral site produced significant analgesic effects, particularly in treating pain of mandibular origin. These results suggest that intraoral injection of ketorolac may prove to be a useful adjunct in the management of endodontic pain patients. Further studies are required to replicate these findings and to develop optimal treatment combinations.
A patient with a 6-yr history of chronic orofacial pain and periapical pathosis in the anterior maxilla presented for evaluation and treatment. Previous root canal therapy had failed to resolve the persistent pain. Further evaluation suggested a non-odontogenic etiology of the patient's symptoms. Exploratory surgery revealed an osseous cavity across the maxillary anterior palatal midline filled with osteoid and early mineralized bone. The tumor was surgically removed in toto. A diagnosis of benign osteoblastoma was made.
Atypical odontalgia is characterized by prolonged periods of throbbing or burning pain in the teeth or alveolar process, which occurs in the absence of any identifiable odontogenic etiology. The pain may be bilateral and change in location. This article presents two cases of atypical odontalgia that were misdiagnosed and initially treated as pain of odontogenic origin. A therapeutic regimen of tricyclic antidepressants alleviated the pain in one patient and was unsuccessful in the second. These two cases demonstrate the importance of having a thorough knowledge of both odontogenic and nonodontogenic causes of orofacial pain as well as the need for careful diagnosis before undertaking any treatment.
The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a supplemental intraosseous injection (IOI) of 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine using the Stabident device, after conventional anesthetic methods had failed. Patients who experienced pain during endodontic access and required a supplemental IOI using 0.45 to 0.90 ml of the local anesthetic were identified. All 37 of the patients treated had teeth diagnosed with irreversible pulpitis. Thirty-four of the teeth were mandibular posterior teeth, 2 were maxillary posterior teeth, and 1 was a maxillary anterior tooth. Patients with maxillary teeth had received infiltration anesthesia, and those with mandibular teeth had received an inferior alveolar nerve block in conjunction with long buccal infiltration. A minimum of 3.6 ml of local anesthetic was used with the conventional techniques. Modified visual analogue scales, coupled with operator evaluations, were used to measure success. The Stabident IOI was an effective supplemental anesthetic technique in 89% (+/- 5.1) or 33/37 patients evaluated. The 95% confidence interval was 74 to 97%. The IOI was successful in 91% (+/- 4.9) of the mandibular posterior teeth (31/34), and 67% of the maxillary teeth (2/3).
The purpose of this study was to determine the anesthetic efficacy of a supplemental intraosseous injection of 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine in teeth diagnosed with irreversible pulpitis. Fifty-one patients with symptomatic, vital maxillary, and mandibular posterior teeth diagnosed with irreversible pulpitis received conventional infiltrations or inferior alveolar nerve blocks. Pulp testing was used to determine pulpal anesthesia after "clinically successful" injections. Patients who were positive to the pulp tests, or were negative to the pulp tests but felt pain during endodontic access, received an intraosseous injection using 1.8 ml of 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine. The results demonstrated that 42% of the patients who tested negative to the pulp tests reported pain during treatment and required supplemental anesthesia. Eighty-one percent of the mandibular teeth and 12% of maxillary teeth required an intraosseous injection due to failure to gain pulpal anesthesia. Overall, the Stabident intraosseous injection was found to be 88% successful in gaining total pulpal anesthesia for endodontic therapy. We concluded that, for posterior teeth diagnosed with irreversible pulpitis, the supplemental intraosseous injection of 2% lidocaine (1:100,000 epinephrine) was successful when conventional techniques failed.
One hundred seventeen patients with posterior teeth requiring endodontic treatment were studied. Specific clinical findings were recorded, including pulp, vitality, preoperative pain, sensitivity to percussion, and the presence of a periradicular radiolucency. Excluded from the study were teeth with restorations to be maintained, greater than class I mobility, pocket depths > 5 mm, endodontic retreatments, and patients taking pain altering medications. Teeth were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: (i) total occlusal reduction, (ii) simulated occlusal reduction (nonfunctional cusp reduction), or (iii) control (occlusion untouched). After canal instrumentation, a questionnaire was used by patients to record pain responses over a 48-h post-operative period. Responses were tabulated using a chi(2) test (p = < 0.05), and a statistically valid profile of patients most likely to benefit from occlusal reduction was developed. Occlusal reduction should prevent postoperative pain in those patients whose teeth initially exhibit pulp vitality, percussion sensitivity, preoperative pain, and/or the absence of a periradicular radiolucency.
The aim of this study was to compare subjective sensation with objective neural discharges recorded by microneurography. We examined human teeth that did not respond to pulp vitality testing, but that responded to cavity preparation for endodontic treatment (pathophysiological). Intact teeth and endodontically obturated teeth were used as controls. Pulpal blood flow in the clinical crown and histological examination were also used. Most teeth, both in normal and pathophysiological conditions, did not respond to all pulp vitality tests. Even when teeth in the pathophysiological group showed spike discharges evoked by pulp vitality tests or from spontaneous activity no sensation was elicited. These results confirmed the usefulness of microneurography for research on pulpal sensation and the significance of summation in the perception of sensation in chronically inflamed tooth pulp.
Many diseases can cause orofacial pain, and the diagnosis must be established before final treatment. This case report presents a patient with orofacial pain that was diagnosed as an acute pulpitis. However, there was no evidence of this problem on examination. After 4 days, the patient showed multiples vesicles on the face, and a herpes zoster viral infection was diagnosed. The patient was treated with acyclovir and, after 2 yr, she still complains of facial sensitivity.
An oral cavity metastasis from a poorly differentiated carcinoma, presumed to have originated in the pancreas, mimicked a dental abscess. An additional metastasis to the lung caused a postobstructive lobar pneumonia that masked the lesion, thereby delaying the diagnosis of malignancy. This case report illustrates how the clinical manifestations of a widely disseminated neoplasm led to initial medical confusion and subsequent dental misdiagnosis, and serves to caution of a possible pitfall in the dental evaluation of endodontic lesions.
This retrospective study compared one-visit versus two-visit endodontic treatment. The same technique and materials were used before and after making the sole change to one-visit endodontic treatment in 1991. Treatment records of 402 consecutive patients with pulpally necrotic first and second molars were compared. In 201 patients, treatment was provided by debridement and instrumentation, followed by obturation at a second visit; whereas the second group received single visit therapy. Flare-ups were defined as either patient reports of pain not controlled with over-the-counter medication or as increasing swelling. Sixteen flare-ups (8%) occurred in the two-visit group versus six flare-ups (3%) for the one-visit group. This showed an advantage for one-visit treatment at a 95% confidence level. In a second comparison, one-visit patients who had previously received two-visit treatment for a different pulpally necrotic molar served as their own control. No significant differences were present in this subgroup of 17 patients.