Clinical article
Comparative study of the effect of a tube drain in impacted lower third molar surgery

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0278-2391(03)00675-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Purpose: Postoperative variables such as pain, swelling, and trismus after surgery of the impacted lower third molars are the main concerns of dental clinicians and surgeons. Many authors claim that the use of a drain could help control these variables. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the use of a tube drain in impacted lower third molar surgery.

Materials and Methods: Fifty-three patients of both genders with bilateral impacted lower third molars comprised our comparative study. The patients were divided into 2 groups: in the first the suture procedure was accomplished using a drain, and in the second the suture procedure was accomplished without a drain. The postoperative pain, swelling, and trismus were evaluated at 24 hours, 72 hours, 7 days, and 15 days.

Results: In the group in which the drain was used, the control of the swelling variable was statistically significant at 24 and 72 hours (P < .001) in comparison with the group in which the drain was not used. However, pain and trismus were not statistically significant at the evaluation period.

Conclusion: The use of the drain helps to control swelling. However, it had no effect on pain or trismus.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

This research was a split mouth study, and the initial sample comprised 70 patients of both genders with impacted lower third molars. Initially, 5 patients underwent the surgical removal of teeth with the purpose of calibrating the surgical technique. These 5 patients and 12 additional patients were excluded because they proved to be unsuitable for the study. The final sample was therefore composed of 53 patients, who were operated on by the same surgeon (P.R.F.C.). The evaluation was carried

Results

Fifty-three patients participated in this evaluation, of whom 16 (30.2%) were male and 37 (69.8%) were female. Ages varied from 14 to 30 years (mean, 21.49 ± 4.77 years) and 50% of the third molars were in the vertical position, 41.5% were in the mesioangular position, and 8.5% were in the distoangular position. Intensity of the pain in most of the patients was mild in accordance with a visual analog scale. In the control group (suture), the percentage of pain was higher than the experimental

Discussion

Surgery of impacted third molars is one of the most frequent procedures in oral and maxillofacial surgery and can lead to immediate and postoperative discomfort.6, 7 Many authors report that the postoperative quality of life in this type of surgical intervention is a quite interesting topic, because discomforts such as pain, swelling, and trismus are well known and lead to a transitory functional alteration in the mastication function.2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 These postoperative discomforts may

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