Intracanal use of a corticosteroid solution as an endodontic anodyne

In fifty consecutive clinical patients with endodontically involved teeth that responded with vital pulp test readings, a corticosteroid solution and a saline placebo were alternately used as an intracanal anodyne. The patients subjectively rated their pain on a scale of 0 to 100 as "none," "mild," "moderate," and "severe" (0 = none, 1 to 33 = mild, 34 to 66 = moderate, 67 and above = severe). The ratings were done before the first treatment and then at 24, 48, and 72 hours after treatment. Corticosteroid-treated and placebo-treated cases were not significantly different in terms of type of teeth treated, clinical pulpal diagnosis, and preoperative patient evaluation of pain. The results showed a decreased subjective report of pain for the corticosteroid cases as compared to the controls through the three posttreatment time periods (p less than 0.10). A statistically significant decreased incidence of pain was reported for the corticosteroid cases as compared to the control at the 24-hour time period (p less than 0.05). No clinical indication of infection was noted in either the corticosteroid or saline control cases.