Assessment of preemptive analgesia efficacy in surgical extraction of third molars.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Literature on preemptive analgesia is controversial. Reliability of results and difficult reproducibility of research contribute for non-elucidation of the subject. The aim of this study is to test the efficacy of oral ketoprofen (150 mg) preemptively administrated two days before third molar surgery, compared with postoperative administration in the same patient. METHODS Thirteen patients underwent surgical removal of bilateral third molar in two separate procedures. In a random and double blind procedure, oral ketoprofen 150 mg was administered every 12 hours two days before surgery and, after the procedure, the same drug was administered for three days. On the other side, a control (placebo) was used orally every 12 hours two days before surgery and, after the procedure, ketoprofen 150 mg was administered every 12 hours for three days. Postoperative pain was assessed by visual analogue scale, nominal scale, and amount of rescue analgesics consumed. RESULTS There was no statistically significant difference in postoperative pain between the preemptive treatment and control. CONCLUSION In this experimental model, preemptive analgesia was not effective in reducing postoperative pain in surgical extraction of third molar compared with the postoperative administration of the same drug.