Efficacy of intravenous dexamethasone administered preoperatively and postoperatively on pain, swelling, and trismus following third molar surgery. A comparative study

Abstract

AbstractAimTo demonstrate the preventative therapeutic effect of pre‐operative and post‐operative intravenous 8 mg of dexamethasone on post‐operative pain, swelling and trismus after the surgical extraction of mandibular third molars.Materials and methodsA randomised clinical trial was conducted on of 100 healthy participants (group I pre‐operative and group II post‐operative) with unilateral impacted lower third molars, average age 27.7 ± 9.7 years with no local or systemic problems were operated under local anaesthesia. Group I received 8 mg intravenous 1 hour pre‐operatively and group II received 8 mg intravenous dose of dexamethasone at the end of procedure. Post‐operative pain was evaluated using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the degree of swelling was evaluated through facial reference point variation. The presence of trismus was analysed through measurement of the inter‐incisal distance (IID). These assessments were obtained before the operation and 48 hour and 7th post‐operative day.ResultsNo significant differences were observed in facial swelling and trismus among pre‐operative and post‐operative IV 8 mg doses after the surgery (student t‐test; P > 0.05). The visual analogue scale scores for pain assessment showed no clinically or statistically significant differences in both groups (student t test; P > 0.05).ConclusionsPre‐operative administration of 8 mg intravenous dexamethasone is as effective as 8 mg IV post‐operative dexamethasone with no clinically or statistically significant differences in the final outcomes of the third molar surgery.