Objective: To determine the frequency of inter-appointment pain during root canal treatment in
patients with apical periodontitis
Materials and Methods: A randomized controlled trial was done at Islamic international dental
hospital, Islamabad for 6 months from March 2016 to Sep 2016. A total of n=60 patients were
selected through non-probability, consecutive sampling technique undergoing Root canal treatment
for acute apical periodontitis. All the patients were personally interviewed regarding their pain
history. They were asked to rate the pain they experienced during the inter-appointment period,
on a scale from 1-10. The observations were recorded and statistical analysis was done in order
to reach a conclusion. Pain was addressed using specific intra-canal medicaments. Follow-up
was ensured by keeping contact details of all the randomly selected cases, under observation.
Results: Out of all n=60 patients, included in the present study, it was found that the age range
was from 17 to 50 years with mean age to be 31.38 ± 9.93 years. The minimum pain score was 1
and maximum was 4 having a mean pain score of 2.95 ± 1.01. Males were, n= 32 (53.3%) while
n=28 female patients were included in this study (46.7%).
Conclusion: It was found that the perception of pain is different for all the cases and it depends
upon the aetiology as well as the gender and age of the patients