Postoperative discomfort associated with surgical and nonsurgical endodontic retreatment

Endodontic retreatment decision-making must include an appraisal of the costs of the different strategies proposed. In addition to direct costs, postoperative discomfort may have other consequences in terms of time off work, unscheduled visits and suffering. To establish a foundation for the appraisal of such indirect and intangible costs the present study was set up in which patients' assessments of pain and swelling after surgical and nonsurgical retreatment procedures were recorded. Ninety-two patients with 95 root-filled incisors and canine teeth exhibiting apical periodontitis were included in the study. The mode of retreatment was randomly assigned. Each day during the first post-treatment week patients assessed their degree of swelling and pain on horizontal 100-mm visual analog scales (VAS). The scales ranged from "no swelling" to "very severe swelling" and "no pain" to "intolerable pain", respectively. Consumption of self-prescribed analgesics and time off work were also recorded. Significantly more patients reported discomfort after surgical retreatment than after nonsurgical procedures. High pain scores were most frequent on the operative day while swelling reached its maximum on the first postoperative day followed by progressive decrease both in frequency and magnitude. Postoperative symptoms associated with nonsurgical retreatment were less frequent but reached high VAS values in single cases. Analgesics were significantly more often consumed after periapical surgery. Patients reported absence from work mainly due to swelling and discoloration of the skin. This was found to occur only after surgical retreatment. Conclusively, surgical retreatment resulted in more discomfort and tended to bring about greater indirect costs than nonsurgical retreatment.