Patient comfort using three methods of endodontic therapy: traditional, paraformaldehyde, and hybrid sealer techniques.

This paper is not a study, but rather a clinical evaluation of three endodontic techniques based solely on subjective postoperative symptoms reported by patients. From 1968 to 1972 (four years), the author treated 452 teeth with a traditional endodontic technique. During 1973-1981 (eight years), he treated 625 additional teeth by instrumenting the root canals in the same manner as in the traditional method, but without the employment of sodium hypochlorite. In this procedure, the canals were obturated with a paraformaldehyde-steroid-zinc oxide and eugenol paste (PSZOE). A third "hybrid" endodontic technique was used in treating 522 other teeth during 1982-1991 (nine years). During the latter period, the teeth were instrumented in the same manner as in the first two modes of therapy, sodium hypochlorite was not used, and the root canals were filled with gutta percha cones covered with the PSZOE paste. Based on subjective reports of postoperative swelling and pain, there was a 10% incidence of swelling and a 20% incidence of pain in cases treated by the traditional technique and their root canals filled with gutta percha cones coated with Tubliseal by Kerr Dental Manufacturing Company of Detroit. Based on these same criteria, there was only a 1.6% prevalence of swelling and a 1.9% prevalence of pain when the root canals of 625 teeth were completely filled with a PSZOE paste. When the root canals of 522 other endodontically treated teeth were filled with gutta percha cones coated with PSZOE, postoperative swelling was reported in 1.5% of the cases and postoperative pain in 3.2% of the treated teeth.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)