• Gaetano Isola, Giovanni Matarese, Angela Alibrandi, Domenico Dalessandri, Marco Migliorati, Eugenio Pedullà, and Ernesto Rapisarda.
• Department of General Surgery and Surgical-Medical Specialties, School of Dentistry, University of Catania, Catania.
• Clin J Pain. 2019 Nov 1; 35 (11): 908-915.

ObjectiveThe objective of this analysis was to compare the efficacy of etoricoxib and diclofenac in the management of perioperative sequelae following impacted mandibular third molar surgery.Materials And MethodsNinety-seven patients who needed surgical avulsion of an impacted mandibular third molar were chosen for the study. All patients were randomly allocated to receive one of the following treatments, twice a day for 5 days after surgery: placebo (n=33), diclofenac (n=32), or etoricoxib (n=32). The primary outcome evaluated was postoperative pain, recorded by each patient and evaluated using the Visual Analogue Scale score. The secondary outcomes chosen were, compared with preoperative ones, changes in postoperative swelling and maximum mouth opening.ResultsCompared with placebo, treatment with etoricoxib and diclofenac demonstrated an enhancement in the primary outcome. Furthermore, when compared with the other groups, patients who had undergone etoricoxib presented a significant median reduction in postoperative pain at 2 hours (P<0.001), 12 hours (P=0.025), and at 48 hours (P=0.018) after surgery. Moreover, the linear regression analysis showed that diclofenac and etoricoxib determined a significant influence on Visual Analogue Scale at 2, 6, 12, 24, 48 hours and at 10 days after surgery. There were no differences in swelling and maximum mouth opening values between groups.DiscussionThis study demonstrated that both treatments were effective. However, treatment with etoricoxib showed a greater reduction in the incidence and severity of postoperative pain following third molar surgery compared with diclofenac and placebo.

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