Year : 2021

Volume : Volume 12

Issue : Issue 1

Address for correspondence :
Dr. Kalyan Banerjee
kalyan.omfs@gmail.com

Abstract

Background:  Postsurgical complications like pain, swelling, impaired function cause transient morbidity is very common. Various anticipatory drugs are prescribed to prevent patients from such unpleasant situations. Both dexamethasone and methyl prednisolone can be used for this purpose in surgery of third molar impactions.  Materials and Methods: This was a split mouth study consisting of 25 patients having Pell and Gregory's class II position B bilateral impactions. Eight mg dexamethasone and 40 mg methyl prednisolone were prescribed randomly one hour prior to the surgery. Pain, swelling and trismus were noted on 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 7th day following surgery. Wilcoxon test was used to assess the significance between the parameters. Results: Reduction in swelling and trismus was found to be significantly more with dexamethasone than methyl prednisolone. However no statistically significant difference was found in post-operative pain.  Conclusion: Dexamethasone can be used as a potent preemptive drug for controlling post-operative complications in removal of third molar impactions.

Keywords: Dexamethasone, Methylprednisolone, Third Molar, Trismus.