Factors associated with endodontic interappointment emergencies of teeth with necrotic pulps

Despite significant progress in the field of endodontics, the causes of interappointement emergencies are not well defined and are a subject of controversy. To delineate some of the major factors related to the incidence of these emergencies, information from the charts of 2,000 patients who had received root canal therapy for necrotic pulps was recorded and analyzed. One-half of the patients were those who had interappointment pain or swelling which required a nonscheduled emergency visit for urgent care. The other half were patients who reported no complications after cleaning and shaping of their root canals. The results of this study show that some factors, such as age, sex tooth type, presence of preoperative pain, presence of allergies, absence of periapical lesions, sinus tract stomas, retreated cases as well as those receiving prescribed analgesics, had significant effects on the incidence of endodontic interappointment emergencies. In contrast, presence of systemic diseases, use of intracanal medications, and penetration of the foramen with small instruments during length determination had no significant effect on the frequency of these emergencies.