A clinical study of the effects of oral administration of betamethasone on the incidence of post treatment endodontic pain

Document Type : original article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Dept of Endodontics, Dental School, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Dept of Endodontics, Dental School, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Dept of Endodontics, Dental School, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction
 One of the complications following root canal therapy in some patients is the post treatment endodontic pain. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of oral administration of a single dose of betamethasone prior to treatment on the incidence of post - treatment endodontic pain .
Materials & Methods
 In this study 100 patients with single canal teeth with vital pulps undergoing root canal therapy were selected. One hour before treatment, patients were randomly given either 4mg of betamethasone or a placebo identical in appearance to the test drug. Root canal therapy was accomplished with the current standardized technique and evaluated for the incidence of pain, using the visual analog scale approach 2,4,6,8,10,12,24,36 and 48 hours after the treatment.
Results
 The results of this study indicated that oral administration of  betamethasone in comparison with placebo at all periods significantly reduced post treatment endodontic pain.
Conclusion
 According to the above findings,  oral administration of a single dose of prophylactic betamethasone could significantly reduce post treatment endodontic pain in vital teeth.

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