Incidence of post obturation pain following single and multi visit root canal treatment in a teaching hospital of Bangladesh.

Post obturation pain is the pain of any degree after endodontic treatment. There are different opinions regarding incidence of post obturation pain related to single and multi visit root canal treatment. This prospective study was conducted to evaluate the incidence of post obturation pain in single visit and multi visit root canal treatment and to compare the incidence of pain between the two treatment groups. A total of 120 cases of endodontically involved asymptomatic non vital single rooted teeth were selected for this study. The patients were assigned and divided in to two treatment groups, sixty patients each. In single visit group, all teeth were prepared and filled using the standardized preparation and lateral condensation filling technique. In the multi visit treatment group, at the first appointment, the teeth were prepared, and dressed with calcium hydroxide paste for 7 days. At the second appointment, the teeth were prepared and obturated by using lateral condensation technique. The frequency of post obturation pain was recorded as no pain, slight, moderate and severe pain and evaluated at the day 1 and at the day 7 after obturation. The data were analyzed statistically by using SPSS version-12. P value <0.05 was taken as significant. The study showed that the post obturation pain in the single visit treatment group was more than multi visit treatment group, which is significant (p value <0.044). Out of the 120 patients, 86(71.7%) patients had no pain, 19(15.8%) had slight pain and 15(12.5%) patients had moderate pain at the day 1 after obturation. At the day 7 after obturation, 108(90%) patients had no pain, 9(7.5%) had slight pain and 3(2.5%) patients had moderate pain. No patient noticed severe pain during the follow up period. Older patient had significantly more post obturation pain than the younger patient. There was higher incidence of post obturation pain following the single visit root canal treatment. In multi visit root canal treatment with intra-canal medicaments seems to reduce the post obturation pain.