OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of pre-operative pain on the success of pulpotomy in primary teeth and to assess whether
formocresol (FC) or MTA performs better in patients with pre-operative pain.
METHODOLOGY: Data was collected retrospectively from the records of Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Children
Hospital, Islamabad. Only patients with complete pre-operative and one-year follow-up clinical and radiographic records were
included. A total of 60 teeth were selected for the study on which pulpotomy was performed. Among the selected teeth, thirty
teeth were symptomatic at time of treatment and thirty were asymptomatic. Fifteen teeth in each group were treated with FC
and fifteen with MTA as pulpotomy medicament.
RESULTS: After one-year, the clinical and radiographic success of pulpotomized teeth with positive history of pain was found
to be 70% and 53.3% respectively. Among the teeth with positive pre-operative pain, 60% of the teeth treated with FC and 80%
of the teeth treated with MTA showed clinical success. The radiographic success rate was found to be 33.3% and 73.3% for
FC and MTA respectively.
CONCLUSION: The results from the current study suggest the presence of pre-operative pain negatively affects the success
of pulpotomy in primary molars and could be used as an important clinical indicator to govern the choice of pulpotomy agent
in clinical practice.
KEYWORDS: Pulpotomy, Formocresol, Mineral trioxide aggregate, Primary teeth.
HOW TO CITE: Babar P, Siddique SN, Zalan AK, Ilyas Z, Munir S, Gul A. Pre-operative pain’- A clinical indicator to govern
the choice of pulpotomy agent in primary teeth: a retrospective study. J Pak Dent Assoc 2023;32(2):31-35.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25301/JPDA.322.31Received: 28 April 2023, Accepted: 01 July 2023
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