A controlled randomized, prospective, split-mouth study was done at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Mahidol University, and approved by The Mahidol University Institutional Review Board (MU-IRB), with COA No. MU-DT/PY-IRB 2016/021.2303. This study involved 62 lower third molar operations in 31 patients, performed under local anesthesia (Table 1 and Fig. 1 ). The difficulty of lower third molar surgery was evaluated according to the Pell-Gregory classification [20 ].
The patients had similarly bilateral lower third molar, so we randomly divided each side into two groups. Thus, the study group received 8 mg of dexamethasone (4 mg/ml in 2 ml), injected preoperatively through the pterygomandibular space after local anesthesia, whereas the control group received 2 ml of normal saline, also injected preoperatively through the pterygomandibular space after local anesthesia.
Of the 31 patients who participated in this study, 11 were male (22 operations: 35.48%), 20 were female (40 operations: 64.51%) with mean age 22 (age range 16 to 32) years. The patients were blinded to the use of dexamethasone, and all procedures were performed by the same surgeon.
The standard surgical technique of lower third molars surgery was done under local anesthesia with 4% articaine hydrochloride with 1:100,000 epinephrine for inferior alveolar nerve block and long buccal nerve block. All the patients received amoxicillin (500 mg) at intervals of 8 hours for 7 days, and acetaminophen (500 mg) for pain every 6 hours as needed.
The patients had similarly bilateral lower third molar, so we randomly divided each side into two groups. Thus, the study group received 8 mg of dexamethasone (4 mg/ml in 2 ml), injected preoperatively through the pterygomandibular space after local anesthesia, whereas the control group received 2 ml of normal saline, also injected preoperatively through the pterygomandibular space after local anesthesia.
Of the 31 patients who participated in this study, 11 were male (22 operations: 35.48%), 20 were female (40 operations: 64.51%) with mean age 22 (age range 16 to 32) years. The patients were blinded to the use of dexamethasone, and all procedures were performed by the same surgeon.
The standard surgical technique of lower third molars surgery was done under local anesthesia with 4% articaine hydrochloride with 1:100,000 epinephrine for inferior alveolar nerve block and long buccal nerve block. All the patients received amoxicillin (500 mg) at intervals of 8 hours for 7 days, and acetaminophen (500 mg) for pain every 6 hours as needed.
