Does the postoperative administration of antibiotics reduce the symptoms of lower third molar removal? A randomized double blind clinical study.

BACKGROUND: To date there is little scientific evidence that clarifies the therapeutic effect of antibiotics for managing the postoperative symptoms of impacted third molar surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of antibiotic treatment for reducing non-infectious clinical symptoms.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patient data was collected from the patients´ medical records and the results were statistically evaluated with SPSS versión 21.0; SPSS, IBM; Chicago, IL, USA). This longitudinal prospective study consisted of a randomized simple-blind clinical assay of 293 patients attending the Department of Oral Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). The predictive variable evaluated was the effect of antibiotic treatment on non-infectious symptoms after third molar extraction. The variables evaluated were pain, swelling, and oral aperture.

RESULTS: The 293 patients were divided into 2 groups: a control group of 147 patients treated with analgesics and anti-inflammatories after surgery and a study group of 146 patients, who were also administered antibiotics. Better outcomes were observed in the study group treated with antibiotics. Pain, swelling and oral aperture variables presented better results in the antibiotic group with statistically significant difference.

CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that antibiotic administration decreases the post-operative non-infectious clinical symptoms of impacted third molar surgery. However, the prolonged administration of antibiotics had no real medical indications to justify their use and can cause serious health problems in the long term. Key words: Antibiotic, post-operative, impacted lower third molar.