Antibiotics are not useful to reduce pain associated with irreversible pulpitis

摘要

Commentary The American Association of Endodontists (AAE) defines symptomatic irreversible pulpitis as a clinical diagnosis based on subjective and objective findings indicating that the vital inflamed pulp is incapable of healing.1 Additional descriptors for this condition include lingering thermal pain, spontaneous pain and referred pain. Some describe this type of pain's intensity as 'worse than childbirth'. Given this information one can understand why there aren't many studies like this one conducted to be included in this review. Other studies that were excluded were ones where antibiotics were used either during or after endodontic therapy was initiated. Ethically can a researcher withhold treatment, for seven days, that we know will ultimately eliminate extreme pain in order to test a hypothesis?