Effect of oxygen-enriched oil application after surgical extraction of impacted inferior third molar

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an oxy-gen-enriched oil-based medical device in reducing the need for anti-inflammatory drugs and sup-porting the reduction of bacterial load in third molar extraction op-erations, at the end of check whether the application of this de-vice can help reduce the local in-flammatory process and the pa-tient’s pain and discomfort. Third molar surgery can also present pitfalls not only related to the sur-gical act, associated with the in-traosseous localization of the den-tal element, but also related to the management of the post-opera-tive surgical site by the patient. Precisely from this element was born the idea of selecting a prod-uct that could assist the patient in the correct post-operative man-agement of the intra-oral wound. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fifty patients were divided into two groups, one that used exclu-sively 0.2% chlorhexidine gel (group A) and one that applied No-vox® Drop (group B). The maxi-mum reduction in mouth opening at the post-operative follow-up on day 7 was evaluated to determine the degree of trismus in both groups. In both groups, the days of therapy with non-steroidal an-ti-inflammatory drugs and the re-ported pain were evaluated. RESULTS The average maximum post-op-erative mouth opening increased from 4.36 to 4.16 cm in group B and from 4.5 to 3.68 cm in group A (p = 0.0061). The percentage of mouth opening was 4% in group B versus 18% in group A (p <0.001). Group B patients use NSAIDs to control pain for an average of 3.1 days while group A patients use them for an average of 4.4 days with a reduced perception of pain in group B patients. CONCLUSIONS These results appear to provide evidence that the oxygen-en-riched oil-based medical device can be effective in improving the results of third molar extractions. Patients who applied the product in question showed a smaller re-duction in maximum mouth open-ing and required less anti-inflam-matory therapy to control pain. Future prospects include applying similar products in the manage-ment of post-operative surgical wounds in other areas of maxil-la-facial surgery such as post-trau-matic or orthognathic surgery. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Study of the effectiveness of the application of oxygen-enriched oil-based products in the post-op-erative management of the ex-traction of impacted third molars.