Comparison of the Effectiveness of Dexamethasone Injection into Two Different Sites in Preventing the Postoperative Complications after Mandibular Third Molar Surgery: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Aims: Inflammation occurring after the surgical removal of impacted lower third molars can cause complications such as pain and swelling. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of dexamethasone injection into the medial pterygoid and gluteal muscles in preventing postoperative complications after surgical removal of bony impacted mandibular third molars.

Study Design: Parallel randomized clinical trial.

Place and Duration of Study: Oral Surgery Department of the Torabinejad Dental Research Center, between April 2013 and January 2014.

Methodology: This trial included 77 participants aged between 18 and 35 years [mean age (mean ± standard deviation), 25.04±4.33 years] requiring surgical removal of a single bony impacted mandibular third molar under local anesthesia. Participants were randomly assigned to 3 groups based on systematic random. Postoperative pain, swelling, patients’ general satisfaction, and changes in daily life function were evaluated. These factors were first analyzed by the Kruskal–Wallis and ANOVA tests, followed by the Mann–Whitney test.

Results: The two dexamethasone groups had significantly less postoperative pain, swelling, and change in appearance at 48 h after the surgery compared with the DF group.

Conclusion: With the caution of a small sample size, the results of this study indicate that near the surgical field preoperative injection of dexamethasone in the medial pterygoid muscle can control postoperative pain, swelling, and changes in appearance as efficiently as the same in the gluteus muscle.