Pretreatment with a single dose of both 300 mg Gabapentin and 75 mg Pregabalin offered a stronger analgesic effect when compared to placebo during root canal treatment, according to a double-blind, randomized clinical trial. Researchers sought to determine the analgesic efficacy of Pregabalin and Gabapentin in decreasing postoperative endodontic pain.

Overall, 90 subjects who required root canal treatment were randomly assigned to one of three groups (n=30) based on their initial numerical rating scale (NRS) pain score of > 4 (T0).  Thirty minutes before the commencement of endodontic treatment, subjects were given either 300 mg of Gabapentin (group A), 75 mg of Pregabalin (group B), or a placebo (group C). Single-visit endodontics was carried out by a single operator.

The pain was measured utilizing NRS immediately after the endodontic treatment (T1), at 4 hours (T2), 8 hours (T3), 12 hours (T4), 24 hours (T5), 48 hours (T6), and 72 hours (T7). If required, a rescue dosage of 400 mg/325 mg of Ibuprofen/Paracetamol was given. Pregabalin outperformed Gabapentin at all the time points, except at 72 hours following therapy. Compared to the other two groups, the pain scores for the placebo group were substantially greater. At 72 hours following the end of the treatment, the Pregabalin group exhibited the highest percentage of pain reduction (92.1%), followed by Gabapentin (87.6%), and placebo (69.1%), as shown in Figure 1:

Thus, both Pregabalin and Gabapentin are useful for reducing postoperative endodontic pain.