Effectiveness Of Submucosal V/S Intramuscular Dexamethasone In Mandibular Third Molar Surgeries

Abstract

Complications like swelling, trismus, and pain are common after third molar surgery. This Study was conducted to compare and evaluate the therapeutic effect of dexamethsone intramuscular VS submucosal on these complications. Sixty patients with mandibular impaction were included in this study. Thirty patients were given 4mg submucosal dexamethasone and the control group was given 4 mg intra muscular dexamethasone immediatelyafter surgical extraction. Patients with contraindication to the use of steroids were excluded from this study. Facial swelling and maximal interincisal distance were measured by an independent examiner at baseline (preoperatively), and at 2 nd, 3rd, 5th day and 7th days postoperatively. Pain was measured by the patients’ response to a visual analogue scale. Results: The submucosal dexamethasone group showed significant reduction in swelling (p

<0.001) and pain (p><0.05) compared with the control group at all intervals. Intramuscular dexamethasone resulted in significantly more trismus on day 2 postoperatively (p= 0.037), but there was no significant difference among the groups at 7th day. Conclusion: Dexamethasone 4 mg given submucosally is effective in minimizing swelling, pain and trismus than intra muscular after removal of impacted lower third molar>