The Effect of Releasing Incision on the Postoperative Complications of Mandibular Third Molar Surgery

Surgical extraction of impacted mandibular third molars often result in a wide range of complications such as trismus, pain, swelling and occasionally ecchymosis. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of two flap designs (triangular and envelope flaps) on such consequences.Twenty healthy patients with similarly positioned bilateral impacted mandibular third molars participated in this randomized clinical trial. Two flap designs were compared in terms of duration of the surgical procedure, postoperative pain, trismus, edema and also ecchymosis. No statistical differences were observed in duration of surgery and postoperative outcomes comparing two flap designs.Regarding to lack of significant differences between the two techniques, the selection of flap design seems to be based on the surgeon's experience and the amount of surgical access that he or she needs.