acetaminophen versus liquefied ibuprofen for control of pain during separation in orthodontic patients: a randomized triple blinded clinical trial

the aim of this randomized clinical study was to investigate the effectiveness of acetaminophen 650 mg or liquefied ibuprofen 400 mg in pain control of orthodontic patients during separation with an elastic separator. a total of 101 patients with specific inclusion criteria were divided randomly into three groups (acetaminophen, liquefied ibuprofen, and placebo). they were instructed to take their drugs one hour before separator placement and every six hours afterward (five doses in total). they recorded their discomfort on visual analog scales immediately after separator placement, 2 hours later, 6 hours later, at bedtime, and 24 hours after separator placement. repeated measure analysis of variance (anova) was used to compare the mean pain scores between the three groups. data were collected from 89 patients. the pain increased with time in all groups. pain scores were statistically lower in the analgesic groups compared with the placebo group ( p .value<0.001), but no statistically significant difference was found in mean pain scores between the two drug groups (acetaminophen and liquefied ibuprofen) ( p. value=1). acetaminophen and liquefied ibuprofen have similar potential in pain reduction during separation.