Assessment of preemptive analgesia with ibuprofen coadministered or not with dexamethasone in third molar surgery: a...

There is no conclusive evidence from clinical trial studies regarding preemptive analgesic interventions. Clinical trials are necessary to evaluate the efficacy of preemptive analgesic interventions already demonstrated in animal studies. Thus, it is necessary to evaluate the analgesic effect of preoperative administration of ibuprofen alone or coadministered with dexamethasone after third molar surgery.

A randomized, double-blind, and controlled clinical trial was conducted with 94 bilateral symmetrical third molar surgeries. Preemptive analgesic medication was randomly defined: ibuprofen or placebo and ibuprofen + dexamethasone or placebo was administered to patients who served as their own control (split mouth). The variables analyzed were postoperative pain through visual analog scale (VAS), total number of rescue analgesic (TNRA), and patient satisfaction. Data were analyzed with the Mann-Whitney test.

There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between ibuprofen and placebo for postoperative pain (VAS) and TNRA. Patients consumed less analgesics (TNRA) for dexamethasone + ibuprofen (p < 0.05) and felt more comfortable in the postoperative period after surgery (p < 0.05).

The preemptive analgesia with ibuprofen was insufficient to inhibit central sensitization, whereas its association with dexamethasone was more effective in preventing pain in third molar surgery.