Moiz Ahmad Khan, Sharjeel Bashir, Farhan Raza Khan, Fahad Umer, Syed Mahmood Haider, Tuba Hasan.
Clinical Efficacy of Single Dose Chlorhexidine Gel Application in Molars Extractions-A Randomized Clinical Trial.
J Pak Dent Assoc Jan ;24(4):175-81.

Alveolar osteitis (AO) is a significant post-operative complication following dental extraction. Chlorhexidine (CHX) is an antibacterial agent used in various forms for prophylaxis and treatment of various dental diseases including prevention of AO after extraction of lower 3rd molar surgeries. Few studies have been done to study the effectiveness of single dose application of 0.2% CHX gel after all molars (1st,2nd and 3rd) in both maxilla and mandible extractions. METHODOLOGY: A phase III, clinical trial on 253 patients was done using block randomization dividing subjects into experimental (CHX gel) and control (placebo gel) groups. The type of extraction and surgical flap design used was recorded. After 3 days post-extraction, patients were recalled and assessed for alveolar osteitis. The Chi-Square test was used to compare AO incidence in the two study groups with level of significance set at the 0.05. RESULTS: The incidence of AO in surgical extraction cases was 38.7% (p=0.001). The group in which envelope flap with buccal releasing incision was performed had highest incidence of AO (67.74%) (p=0.001). The single dose application of CHX The Incidence of AO was18% in the placebo gel compared to 5.4% in CHX gel group (p=0.001). No cases of hypersensitivity to intra-socket placement of CHX gel were reported in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Within the limitation of our study, the incidence of alveolar osteitis was reduced significantly when less invasive type of extraction, less invasive flap design and single dose application of chlorhexidine gel in extraction socket was used. KEY WORDS: Alveolar osteitis, Chlorhexidine gel, molar extraction, dry socket, flap design.

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