Abstract
Postsurgical pain is commonly associated with dental and oral surgery, and the use of analgesics has been investigated in the management of postoperative pain. This systematic review summarizes available evidence on analgesics used to manage dental implant surgery postoperative pain, to identify best therapeutic protocols and knowledge gap. A comprehensive search was conducted including MEDLINE/Pubmed, EMBASE, SCOPUS, clinicaltrials.gov, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews through May 2020. Only randomized controlled trials were included. PRISMA guidelines were followed, and risk of bias was appraised using Cochrane RoB2 tool. Eleven trials (762 patients overall) were included. Some aspects limited the feasibility of a meaningful meta-analysis; thus, a narrative synthesis was conducted. Risk of bias was low in four studies and high in two studies, while five studies raised some concerns due to the randomization process. Analgesic use seemed to be associated with improved postoperative outcomes (pain, patient’s satisfaction, and need for rescue medication) when compared to placebo. Overall, this review suggests that the administration of analgesics may provide some advantages in the management of postoperative outcomes after dental implant placement, while indications about the best analgesics cannot be provided.
Highlights
Dental implant therapy has been a revolution in dentistry
This review suggested that analgesic use in dental implant placement could be associated with improved postoperative outcomes, whereas indications about the best analgesics could not be provided
The literature includes the investigation of different classes of drug, such as NSAID, corticosteroids, opioids, local anesthetics, and Alpha2 adrenergic receptor agonists, benzodiazepine (Pereira et al, 2020; Bhutani et al, 2019; Iero et al, 2018; Sánchez-Pérez et al, 2018; Bahammam et al, 2017; Meta et al, 2017; Samieirad et al, 2017; Raja Rajeswari et al, 2017; Li et al, 2015; Bölükbasi et al, 2012; Karabouda et al, 2007)
Summary
Dental implant therapy has been a revolution in dentistry. Today, oral rehabilitation of single or multiple edentulism with dental implants is a very common procedure, and its use has steadily increased in recent decades (Buser et al, 2017). While intraoperative pain can be effectively controlled with anesthetic agents (Haas, 2002; Bahammam et al, 2017), postoperative pain remains a possible side effect of dental surgery (Wang et al, 2019). After dental implant placement surgery, patients may present different degrees of postoperative discomfort. Pain and swelling are common consequences of the surgical trauma, induced by the release of inflammatory mediators (Bryce et al, 2014). This could be influenced by various intervention-related factors (such as type of surgery, duration, and extension) and patient characteristics (such as stress level, blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety) (Scott and Hirschman, 1982)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
