DPBRN Persistent Pain and Root Canal Therapy

Inclusion Criteria: * 19-70 years old * Permanent adult tooth requiring its first non-surgical root canal therapy * patients with more than 1 tooth requiring root canal therapy are eligible, but only the first root canal procedure will be included to avoid problems of correlation within patients Exclusion Criteria: * evidence of prior root canal therapy, including iatrogenic, but not disease-induced pulp access of the tooth being considered * patients with obvious cognitive impairments (e.g., past stroke with communication deficits, dementia,mental disability) * patients unable to return for 6 month follow-up