Effectiveness of Lidocaine with Epinephrine Irrigation in Reducing Acute Pain from Surgical Removal of Mesioangular-Impacted Third Molars

Abstract

Background: Anesthetic irrigation is an effective treatment for postoperative pain suppression in patients after molar extraction, but exerts a short period of extraction. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of lidocaine with epinephrine irrigation on acute pain relief in healthy volunteers with inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) injection for the surgical removal of mesioangular (MA)-impacted third molars. Methods: A total of 28 patients (56 samples) with bilateral MA-impacted third molars were recruited. This study was a split-mouth, double-blind, randomized clinical trial. Surgical procedures were conducted over two separate appointments. Each patient randomly received 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine for the irrigation of the extraction site after surgery on one side of the mouth and normal saline solution on the other side. The postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) as a pain indicator was recorded and statistically analyzed for both treatments. Results: The VAS levels at 3 and 4 h after surgery in the lidocaine group were significantly lower than those of the normal saline group. Increases in pain scores were recorded five hours after surgery in both groups. No complications were recorded during this study. Conclusions: Continuous local anesthetic irrigation appears to be effective in reducing acute postoperative pain in patients with IANB for MA-impacted third molar surgery. Clinical Trial Registry: Reference number ISRCTN13866362, Date: 1 October 2024.