Background: The choice of an efficacious and well-tolerated analgesic for the control of postoperative pain after third molar surgical extraction remains a challenge.
Aim: The aim of this study was to compare analgesic efficacy and tolerability of celecoxib and tramadol following mandibular third molar extraction.
Materials and methods: This was a prospective randomized, double blind controlled trial. Ninety patients were randomly assigned equally to either celecoxib or tramadol. Appropriate doses of the assigned drugs were administered orally immediately after the surgical extraction and patients recorded the pain intensity felt before the extraction, immediately after extraction, at 4 h, 8 h, 16 h, 24 h, and 48 h after the extraction using the visual analogue scale (VAS). Adverse effects of the medications were also recorded.
Results: Four of the patients dropped out of the study. Fifty five percent of patients in tramadol group experienced adverse effects but none in celecoxib group. The median VAS score of the celecoxib group was lower than tramadol group throughout the postoperative period and there was statistically significant difference in the median VAS score between the two groups 4 hours after drug administration (P = 0.001).
Conclusion: In our study, celecoxib was more efficacious and better tolerated than tramadol for the management of pain after surgical extraction of mandibular third molar.
Keywords: Celecoxib; postoperative pain; third molar surgery; tramadol.