Efficacy of Dexamethasone Diluted Saline Irrigant on Postoperative Sequelae in Patients Undergoing Lower Third Molar Surgery: A Prospective Clinical Study.

Abstract

Background Third molar impaction surgery is one of the most commonyet challenging procedures done as a part of minor oral surgery. Years of research and improvisation of techniques have been done, yet there are still a lot of postoperative sequelae after surgical removal of the impacted tooth. In our study, we have compared the efficacy of dexamethasone diluted saline solution over plain saline solutionused as an irrigant in the reduction of postoperative sequelae for lower third molar surgery. Aim The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of dexamethasone dilutedsaline solution over plain saline solutionin the reduction of postoperative sequelae for lower third molar surgery. Materials and methods The research was conducted atSaveetha Dental College and Hospitalin the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The study consisted of 48 individuals, 24 of whom haddexamethasone saline as an irrigant (8 mg of dexamethasone was diluted in 100 ml of plain saline) (Group 1), and 24 inwhom plain saline was used as an irrigant (Group 2) in the lower third molar surgery. Patients were evaluated postoperatively for pain and swelling. The postoperative swelling was measured on postoperative day two and day seven.Postoperative pain was measured onday two, day four, and day seven after surgery using a visual analog scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) with P-values less than 0.05 considered statisticallysignificant. The statistical test used to compare the outcomes between the two groups was the independent samples t-test. Results It was found that study participants in the dexamethasone saline irrigation group reported statistically significantly lesser pain than participants receiving plain saline irrigation on day two (P = 0.001), day four (P = 0.001), and day seven (P = 0.001), respectively. Also, there was a reduction in swelling among participants in the dexamethasone saline irrigation group when compared to the normal saline irrigation group, which was statistically significant (P = 0.001) on day two, while the postoperative swelling was not statistically significant onday seven (P = 0.08) between the two study groups. Conclusion Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded thatdexamethasone saline solution (8 mg/100 mL) was more effective as an irrigantin reducing the postoperative sequelaethan regular saline solution in the lower third molar surgery.