Efficacy of Pre-Medication with Ibuprofen on Post-Operative Pain after Pulpotomy in Primary Molars.

INTRODUCTION: Pain management following dental procedures, particularly pulpotomies and extraction, is of great importance in pediatric dentistry. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of pre-treatment with ibuprofen on post-operative pain following pulpotomy of primary molars. METHODS AND MATERIALS: In a split mouth double-blinded randomized clinical trial, 49 children aging between 6-10 years old were given either ibuprofen or a placebo 45 min prior to the treatment. After pulpotomy and placement of a stainless steel crown (SSC), the pain level was evaluated using the Wong-Baker face visual analogue scale for up to 7 days post-treatment. McNemar and Wilcoxon tests were used for data analysis. RESULTS: Forty-five patients were eligible to participate in this study. Pre-medication with ibuprofen significantly reduced pain during the first 24 h post-treatment (P=0.032). However, there was no significant difference in the pain levels between placebo and ibuprofen groups at 48 and 72 h post-treatment (P=0.154 and P=0.197, respectively). The number of times patients needed analgesics in ibuprofen group was significantly lower compared to that in the placebo group (P=0.008). CONCLUSION: Pre-medication with ibuprofen resulted in less pain following pulpotomy and SSC placement in primary teeth.

Postoperative Pain following Pulpotomy of Primary Molars with Two Biomaterials: A Randomized Split Mouth Clinical Trial.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this randomized clinical trial split-mouth study was to compare the postoperative pain following use of mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) and calcium-enriched mixture (CEM) cement as pulpotomy agents in carious primary molars. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Forty-seven children aged between 6-10 years old were enrolled in this study. Each child had two cariously involved primary molar in need of pulpotomy. After caries removal and preparing access cavity in one of the carious teeth, either MTA or CEM cement was randomly used as the pulpotomy agent, while the other cariously involved primary molar tooth was capped with the other material in a separate visit. After covering the radicular pulp with one of the capping materials the teeth were permanently restored with stainless steel crown (SSC). Postoperative pain was recorded by using Wong-Baker faces pain rating scale (Wong-Baker FPRS) up to seven days following the treatment. Data was analyzed using the Wilcoxon, McNemar, and chi square tests. RESULTS: Forty-five patients fulfilled the treatment procedure and returned the Wong-Baker FPRS forms. Overall 65.6% of the patients reported pain irrespective of the pulpotomy agents used. There was no significant difference in postoperative pain between the teeth that received either MTA or CEM cement as pulpotomy agents in the first, second and the third day (P=0.805, P=0.942, P=0.705, respectively) following the procedure. The trend of the pain scores showed decreasing manner during the study period for the teeth in either groups of MTA or CEM cement. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the number of analgesics used following the treatment (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study showed that a majority of the children felt pain following pulpotomy and SSC placement; however, there was no significant difference in pain reported when either MTA or CEM cement was used as pulpotomy agents.

Low voltage electrically stimulated lab-on-a-chip device followed by red-green-blue analysis: a simple and efficient design for complicated matrices.

In the present work, a simple and portable analysis device was designed for the first time for the determination of lead ions as the model analyte. The basis of the lead analysis is its extraction and pre-concentration in an acceptor droplet via the application of an electrical field. The acceptor droplet is a KI solution and therefore, the formation of a yellow precipitation of PbI2 was a sign of the presence of lead ion in the solution. Following this, digital picture of the final acceptor droplet was analyzed by investigating its Red-Green-Blue (RGB) components. The results show that the RGB intensities of the acceptor phase are proportionate to the lead concentration in the sample solution. Also, a 9.0 V battery was used to apply the electrical field, and other effective parameters, such as the type of organic liquid membrane, pH of the sample solution, and the extraction time, were considered to obtain the optimal conditions. The model analyte was determined by extracting it from a 100 µL sample solution across a thin layer of 1-octanol, immobilized in the pores of a polypropylene membrane sheet, and into the acceptor droplet via applying a 9.0 V electrical potential for 20 min. The device is capable of determining lead ions down to 20.0 ng mL(-1), with admissible repeatability and reproducibility (the intra- and inter-assay precision ranged between 3.8-7.0% and 9.8-11.9%, respectively). Also, we calculated error% for the model analyte in the range of -8.5 to +4.5, which suggests that the chip offers acceptable accuracy for the analysis of lead ions. The linearity was studied in the range of 50.0-1500 ng mL(-1), with a correlation coefficient of 0.9994. Finally, the designed device was used for the analysis of lead in real samples.