The Effect of 0.2 % Chlorhexidine Gel in Prevention of Pain and Dry Socket Following Mandibular Third Molar Surgery

Pain and dry socket are the most common problems following the removal of third molars. This severe and sudden pain usually occurs 3 days after tooth extraction and its prevalence is about 68.4%. The undelaying etiology is not known so far. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of chlorhexidine gel (0.2%) in prevention of dry socket and pain following mandibular third molar surgery. This study was performed as a sequential split machted randomized double blind clinical trial. All subjects were 18-45 years of age and they were indicated to extract impacted lower third molars bilaterally with difficulty degree of 7-10 according to Pederson scale. The Patients were randomly assigned into case and control groups. 0.2% chlorhexidine gel was applied by gel foam in the sockets. The incidence of dry socket was measured by Blum scale and VAS scale was used to evaluate the pain level. The results were analysed by chi-square, Mann-u-whiteney and McNemar Tests. This study was performed on 80 patients (160 samples), with average age of 21.58±2.49. The incidence of dry socket in the control group was 32.5% and 11.2% in the experimental group (p<0.005). The pain on the third day was 3.38±1.14 in the control group and 2.32±1.15 in the case group which indicated a 31% elevation in the control group (p<0.01). 0.2% chlorhexidine gel can reduce the incidence of dry socket and pain after the extraction of the Impacted lower third molar teeth.