Comparative Efficacy of Preoperative Submucosal Dexamethasone Versus Methylprednisolone on Pain, Swelling and Trismus in Bilaterally Symmetrical Mandibular Third Molar Impaction Surgery

Aim: To compare and assess the efficacy of preoperative submucosal injection of 8 mg dexamethasone versus 40 mg methylprednisolone for bilaterally symmetrical impacted mandibular third molar surgery. Materials and Methodology: The study was conducted on the subjects requiring surgical extraction of bilaterally impacted third molars reporting to Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, V.S. Dental College and Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka between December 2019 to June 2021. Total of 20 subjects were included in the study with case history proforma, investigations, post op follow up and signed informed consent. Post operatively all patients were given antibiotics and analgesics for 5 days. Baseline measurements were done pre-operatively and subsequent assessment were made on post-operative day 3 and 7 to measure post-operative facial swelling, pain and trismus. An ANOVA test was used for statistical analysis and comparison among groups for variables. Results: The test results have shown that dexamethasone showed better results in reduction of the post-operative pain and trismus whereas it was methylprednisolone which reduced the post-operative swelling better. Conclusion: Based on the results obtained from statistical analysis, we therefore conclude from our study that overall methylprednisolone group had significant swelling reduction as compared to dexamethasone group following surgical removal of bilaterally symmetrical impacted mandibular third molars. On the other hand, Trismus and post-oper* pain had greater reduction in dexamethasone group as compared to methylprednisolone group.