PRE-OPERATIVE PAIN: A NOVEL INDICATOR TO GOVERN THE CHOICE OF PULPOTOMY AGENT IN PRIMARY TEETH. A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

The aim of the study is to evaluate whether the presence of pre-operative pain affects the success of pulpotomy in primary teeth and whether either Formocresol (FC) or Mineral Trioxide Aggregate (MTA) performs better in patients with positive history of pain. 120 cases were selected for the study, 60 with and 60 without history of pre-operative pain associated with the pulpotomized tooth, further sub-divided into FC and MTA groups, 30 cases each. Sample size was calculated to be 29, with 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error, taking the success of formocresol pulpotomy as 98.1% [15], so that a sample size of 30 cases for each group was considered. 120 cases were included, 60 with positive history of pre-operative pain and 60 without any history of pre-operative pain. Uni-variant analysis was done to compare the clinical and radiographic outcomes of both agents in the respective groups, a p-value