Submucosal and intramuscular dexamethasone for the control of pain, trismus and edema after third molar surgeries: ¿Is it necessary?

Abstract

Dexamethasone in different routes of administration has been used to control discomfort after third molar surgery. The objective of this research is to determine if the application of dexamethasone by submucosal or intramuscular route is justified for the control of pain, edema and trismus after third molar surgery. A comparative study was carried out in a sample of 51 patients divided into three groups. Group 1 received preoperative intramuscular dexamethasone, group 2 received preoperative submucosal dexamethasone, and group 3 did not receive dexamethasone. The variables pain, trismus and edema were measured at different times. The analysis was carried out in the STATA V13 program, reporting simple frequencies for categorical variables and differences between groups with the Chi-square test, for numerical variables ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis test was applied. Of the 51 patients, 16 were male (31%) and 35 female (69%) and their mean age was 23 years (DE ± 4.8) with a range from 17 to 44. No differences were found between the groups by age and sex. When comparing the different interventions to the groups (IM dexamethasone, submucosal dexamentason and without dexamethasone), no significant differences were found between the groups in any of the parameters studied (edema, pain and trismus), neither at 2, nor at 7 days after the intervention. The administration of dexamethasone intramuscularly or submucosally does not generate important benefits for the control of edema, pain and trismus postoperatively after surgery of wisdom lower third molars. Studies with larger sample sizes are recommended.