Abstract:
BACKGROUND: In Tanzania, oral health services are mostly in the form of dental
extractions aimed at alleviating acute dental pain. Conservative methods of
alleviating acute dental pain are virtually non-existent. Therefore, it was the
aim of this study to determine treatment success of emergency pulpotomy in
relieving acute dental pain.
METHODS: Setting: School of Dentistry, Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania. Study design: Longitudinal study.Participants: 180 patients who
presented with dental pain due to acute irreversible pulpitis during the study
period between July and August 2001. Treatment and evaluation: Patients were
treated by emergency pulpotomy on permanent posterior teeth and were evaluated
for pain after one, three and six week's post-treatment. Pain, if present, was
categorised as either mild or acute.
RESULTS: Of the patients with treated premolars, 25 (13.9%) patients did not
experience pain at all while 19 (10.6%) experienced mild pain. None of the
patients with treated premolars experienced acute pain. Among 136 patients with
treated molars 56 (31%) did not experience any pain, 76 (42.2%) experienced mild
pain and the other 4 (2.2%) suffered acute pain.
CONCLUSION: The short term treatment success of emergency pulpotomy was high
being 100% for premolars and 97.1% for molars, suggesting that it can be
recommended as a measure to alleviate acute dental pain while other conservative
treatment options are being considered.
