Pain Perception Before Endodontic Treatment: from Primary Care to Specialized Care

Abstract Objective: To analyze patients' pain perception requiring endodontic treatment referred to a Dental Specialties Center. Material and Methods: Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire for patients about their experience of pain and another for endodontists about the treatment performed. The results were analyzed descriptively using Pearson's Chi-square test and Fisher's Exact test, with Bonferroni correction (p≤0.05). Results: The median age of the patients was 39 years, and 71.1% were female. The median waiting time for treatment was five months. Pain was reported by 75.2% of patients, occurred more than one month earlier (63.6%), with moderate/severe intensity (66.9%), and most patients sought emergency treatment more than once (79.1%). In addition, pain was associated with sex (female; p=0.008); moderate/severe intensity (p<0.001); the number of times that patient had to go to the dentist because of the tooth treatment (twice or more; p=0.002); and type of tooth treated (posterior tooth; p=0.002). Conclusion: Severe pain episodes resulted in a repeated search for emergency services, which may overload the primary care service, especially if the waiting time for endodontic treatment is long.

Accuracy of cone-beam CT in detecting vertical root fractures in teeth with post-endodontic restorations: an in vitro study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of cone-beam CT (CBCT) for the detection of artificially created vertical root fractures (VRF) in extracted teeth restored with metallic (MP) and fiberglass (FGP) posts. After root canal obturation, 60 extracted human premolars were scanned by using the highest-resolution settings of a CBCT unit. Theprepared roots were randomly divided into three groups: group C (control group): non-restored and non-endodontically treated teeth (n = 20); group MP (n = 20); group FGP (n = 20). In all groups, 10 teeth were artificially fractured. Two external and independent observers blindly recorded the presence or absence of VRF. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, intra-and interobserver agreement were calculated. Kappa value for inter-and intraobserver agreement was 0.82 and 0.84 respectively, demonstrating goodagreement. The highest values for sensitivity (0.80 -0.90), specificity (1.00) and accuracy (0.90 -0.95) were found in the control group. The teeth with FGP restoration presented the lowest sensitivity (0.30 -0.50) and accuracy (0.60 -0.65) values. Both examiners had a good performance in the diagnosis of fractures in teeth with MP, with accuracy ranging between 0.85 -0.90. The presence of MP did not influence accuracy; however, the presence of FGP reduced the diagnostic capacity of CBCT.

Success Rate of Contemporary Regenerative Endodontic Therapy and the Expected Outcomes of the Endodontic Microsurgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT Objective: To examine the level of the accumulating success of the modern Resin-Based Endodontic Surgery (RES) and comparison with Endodontic Microsurgery (EMS) and finally offer a replacement at the predicted final results of EMS. Material and Methods: MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, ISI, Google Scholar have been utilized as electronic databases for systematic literature until 2019. Therefore, Endnote X9, which can be provided in the market, has been applied to manage the electronic titles. Searches have been made with keywords "Endodontic Microsurgery OR EMS", "Resin-Based Endodontic Surgery OR RES", "Regenerative Endodontic Therapy", "Root-End Filling", "Root-End Surgery", "Periapical Surgery" and "Endodontics". Thus, this systematic review has been conducted concerningthe basic investigation of the PRISMA Statement-Preferred Reporting Items designed for the Meta-analyses and Systematic Reviews. Results: A total of RES =19 and EMS =31 with potential pertinent abstracts and topics were discovered in manual and electronic searches. Then, three articles for RES and four studies for EMS publications satisfied our inclusion criteria necessary for systematically reviewing the studies. The analysis showed the success rate for EMS as equal to 1.16 times the probability of the success rate for RES. Conclusion: Micro-surgical procedures superiorly achieved the predictable high success rate for the Root-end surgery compared to conventional methods.