Introduction: Impacted mandibular third molar surgery is a common oral surgical procedure. Swelling, trismus and pain are among the sequelae that occur after surgery due to inflammatory response. Dexamethasone is one of the corticosteroid medications used to relieve the postoperative inflammation. Submucosal injection (SM) and intraosseous injection (IO) are different routes of administration.
Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of intraosseous dexamethasone injection following the surgical removal of impacted lower third molar.
Materials and methods: 38 patients were randomly divided into IO and SM injection groups. Postoperative pain was assessed immediately after surgery and on 1, 3, and 7 postoperative days. Swelling and mouth opening were assessed just before the surgery and on postoperative days 1, 3, and 7. Early healing of periodontal soft tissue wound was assessed on 1, 7, and 14 postoperative days.
Results: The effectiveness of IO injection technique in reduction of pain and control of trismus was significantly lower than that of SM injection. However, no significant difference between IO and SM injection techniques regarding swelling and early healing of periodontal soft tissue wound at any follow up point.
Conclusion: Both techniques had the same effect on early healing of periodontal soft tissue wound that was first addressed in our study. SM injection had a significant effect on reduction of pain compared to a similar study that showed no significant difference between both techniques. Similar to a previous study, SM injection was superior in controlling of trismus, however both techniques were the same in controlling of swelling.