FLARE-UP: ETIOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING AND APPROACHES FOR PREVENTING ENDODONTIC EMERGENCIES

Abstract

Objectives: To analyze the etiological factors associated with flare-up in endodontic treatments, as well as to discuss preventive strategies based on scientific evidence that can reduce its occurrence during or after treatment. Methodology: This is a literature review that was carried out between April 2025 and May 2025. The question that guided the search was “What are the main etiological factors related to flare-up in endodontics and what clinical approaches can be adopted to prevent its occurrence?”. From this, a search was carried out in the PubMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine) and Science Direct databases, with a time lapse of 5 years. The search strategy was formulated by combining the descriptors indexed in DeCS/MeSH “Symptom Flare-up”, “Urgency” and “Endodontics”, combined with the Boolean operator “AND”. The selection criteria were: studies published in the last 5 years, which were related to the guiding question, with full text available in Portuguese, English and Spanish, systematic literature reviews, meta-analyses and randomized clinical trials. The initial search resulted in the identification of 12 articles. Of these, 5 articles were included in the research. Conclusion: Flare-ups have a multifactorial etiology, involving residual infection, extrusion of debris and exacerbated inflammatory response. Prevention requires strict control of the surgical technique and the use of adjuvant approaches such as cryotherapy and anti-inflammatories, which reduce pain and improve clinical prognosis.