Summary
There is a common belief that endodontic treatment is the most painful dental treatment of all. Despite this idea, intraoperative perception during endodontic treatment has not been fully studied. Therefore, the aim of this research was to describe the perception of pain and the intraoperative experience of endodontic treated patients, during the endodontic access cavity preparation. We analyzed the valuations on intraoperative pain completed by 20 patients, treated at the endodontic clinic of a traditional Chilean university, during the endodontic access cavity preparation in molars. For this purpose, quantitative scales of pain intensity assessment and qualitative content analysis of a semi-structured interview were employed. Female participants, treatments in mandibular molars and in teeth diagnosed with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis obtained higher means in terms of assessment of pain intensity. However, in most cases the pain was described as mild. In the qualitative analysis the participant’s descriptions were grouped into 11 categories. There was a higher percentage of references to the category “Anxiety before treatment” (16 %) followed by “Perception of professional care” (14 %). However, references to pain in its totality (25 %) either to “Absence of pain” (13 %) or to “Presence of pain to some degree” (12 %) also stood out. It was concluded that among the participants of this investigation there was perception of intraoperative pain during the endodontic access stage, however, this was mild in most cases.
KEY WORDS: pain, intraoperative, endodontic, mixed methods research.
How to cite this article
PARIS, L.; FIGUEROA, D.; ALCÁNTARA, R.; LAGOS, G. & MUÑOZ, F. Patient intraoperatory perception about endodontic access cavity preparation. Int. J. Odontostomat., 12(3):211-218, 2018.
