Purpose: Of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of submucosal dexamethasone injection in reducing post operative pain, swelling, trismus and number of analgesics taken following third molar surgery. Comparison was made with oral dexamethasone, intramuscular dexamethasone and control group, managed without steroids. Materials and methods: A prospective study was conducted for a period of 2 years and 50 patients were randomly allotted to each group. Patients were evaluated on 3rd and 7th post operative days. Subjective factors such as pain (using visual analog scale), number of analgesics taken and objective factors such as trismus (interincisal distance), edema (tragus- midline distance and gonion – lateral canthus distance) measured and compared between each group. Results: Control group who did not receive dexamethasone had severe pain, swelling and discomfort. Comparing the three groups submucosal , intramuscular and oral dexamethasone, submucosal dexamethasone group had minimal pain and discomfort, normal mouth opening and very minimal odema. Conclusion: Third molar surgery is one of the common intra oral surgical procedure. Surgical removal of teeth is a nightmare for the patients. Profound local anesthesia can make the patient comfortable during the procedure. Submucosal dexamethasone injection is thus useful in reducing the post operative discomfort and increase patient compliance towards the procedure.
