This systematic review was first published in 2010
The American Dental Association Centre for Evidence-based Dentistry has now published a critical summary of this review.
They found the review to be comprehensive using STROBE criteria to assess study quality.Eighteen of the 26 studies were prospective. However they noted that the reviewers did not report the follow-up pain status for patients whose teeth had been extracted as this information was missing from the original article. this may have resulted in an underestimation of the true frequency of all-cause pain.
The appraiser noted that:-
pain that manifests within the first year after endodontic therapy can persist for years.
The reviewers identified pain after endodontic treatment as an issue that dentistry should explore more comprehensively.
There is great need to identify patients at high risk of experiencing persistent pain after endodontic treatment, to facilitate early diagnosis, to initiate preventive measures and to develop treatment strategies.
Go to the ADA Critical summary
Go to the original article abstract
Commentaries are also available on this review in
John Radford
14 years ago