In search of a better option: dexamethasone versus methylprednisolone in third molar impaction surgery

Post-surgical complications like pain, swelling, impaired function cause transient morbidity for the patients leading to refrainment of the treatment. Various preemptive drugs are prescribed to prevent patients from such unpleasant situations. Both dexamethasone and methyl prednisolone can be used for this purpose in surgery of third molar impactions.

This was a split-mouth study consisting 25 patients having Pell and Gregory's Class II position B bilateral impactions. About 8 mg dexamethasone and 40 mg methyl prednisolone were prescribed randomly 1 hour prior to the surgery. Pain, swelling and trismus were noted on 1(st), 2(nd), 3(rd) and 7(th) day following surgery. Wilcoxon test was used to assess the significance between the parameters.

Reduction in swelling and trismus was found to be significantly more with dexamethasone than methyl prednisolone. However, no statistical significant difference was found in post-operative pain.

Dexamethasone can be used as a potent preemptive drug for controlling post-operative complications in the removal of third molar impactions.