REVIEW ARTICLE
Comparison of Two Routes of Administration of Dexamethasone to Reduce the Postoperative Sequelae After Third Molar Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Giuseppe Troiano1, Luigi Laino1, Marco Cicciù2, *, Gabriele Cervino2, Luca Fiorillo2, Cesare D’amico2, Khrystyna Zhurakivska1, Lorenzo Lo Muzio1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2018Volume: 12
First Page: 181
Last Page: 188
Publisher ID: TODENTJ-12-181
DOI: 10.2174/1874210601812010181
Article History:
Received Date: 30/12/2017Revision Received Date: 07/02/2018
Acceptance Date: 13/02/2018
Electronic publication date: 28/02/2018
Collection year: 2018

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to compare the clinical efficacy of two routes of dexamethasone administration in reducing the postoperative sequelae after third molar extraction. Electronic databases (PUBMED, SCOPUS and EBSCO library) were screened in order to find both randomized and non-randomized clinical trials that directly compare the submucosal intraoral or the intramuscular extraoral administration of dexamethasone. No restriction about year of publication was imposed. About 340 titles and abstracts were screened independently by two authors. Of these [340 titles], only 4 randomized clinical trials met the inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. No statistical differences in postoperative pain, swelling and trismus were recorded comparing the intraoral submucosal and the extraoral intramuscular injection of dexamethasone in an extra-oral site.