ReviewJournal of clinical and experimental dentistry2026
Postoperative Oral Dexamethasone and Its Effects on Pain, Trismus, and Quality of Life After Impacted Mandibular Third Molar Surgery: A Randomized Triple-Blind Split-Mouth Clinical Trial.
Review in Journal of clinical and experimental dentistry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Surgical extraction of impacted third molars is associated with postoperative inflammatory complications such as pain and trismus. Corticosteroids are frequently used to reduce these sequelae. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of postoperative oral dexamethasone on pain, trismus, and quality of life after surgical extraction of impacted mandibular third molars. Materials and Methods: A prospective, randomized, triple-blind, split-mouth clinical trial was conducted including 20 patients requiring bilateral extraction of impacted mandibular third molars. All participants received 8 mg of oral dexamethasone one hour before surgery. In the control protocol, patients received placebo tablets twice daily for three postoperative days, while in the test protocol patients received 4 mg of oral dexamethasone twice daily for three days. Pain intensity was recorded using a VAS at 24 hours, 72 hours, and 7 days after surgery. Maximum mouth opening (MMO) was measured preoperatively and on postoperative days 3 and 7. Quality of life was evaluated on day 7 using the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14). Statistical analyses were performed using paired tests with a significance level of 5%. Results: A total of 40 surgical procedures were performed. Mean surgical time did not differ significantly between groups. Pain scores were slightly lower in the test group during the early postoperative period, but no statistically significant differences were observed at any time point (p>0.05). Both groups showed a reduction in MMO during the early postoperative period with partial recovery by day 7, without significant differences between treatments (p>0.05). Quality-of-life assessment revealed no significant differences for most OHIP-14 domains, although the control group reported greater difficulty performing daily activities (p<0.05). Conclusions: Postoperative administration of oral dexamethasone did not provide additional benefits in reducing pain, trismus, or most quality-of-life parameters compared with preoperative dexamethasone alone.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.