A Systematic Review on Prior/Postoperative Antibiotics Therapy Efficiency in Reducing Surgical Complications After Third Molar Extraction Surgery

One of the most common dental surgeries is third molar extraction which often leads to pain and swelling after surgery. In recent years, the prophylactic antibiotics before or after surgeries have been used to reduce the risk of injuries and infection. Various researches conducted in this field have yielded contradictory results. The aim of prophylactic antibiotic treatment is to prevent possible infections and complications after surgery, while antibiotic prescription after surgeries reduces clinical symptoms such as pain. The aim of the present review study is to determine and compare the effect of antibiotic drugs before and after third molar extraction in order to reducing surgical complications.

The research was conducted using electronic databases provided by PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar, with applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Accordingly, all the clinical trials published since 2000 focused on the antibiotic treatments in third molar extraction surgery were included in this review.

The obtained results from 18 selected studies demonstrated that there is no statistically significant document to confirm the efficacy of antibiotics to prevent post-surgery complications such as swelling and pain after third molar extraction.

Dentists should carefully consider the potential increase in bacteria's resistance to antibiotics and the possibility of side effects when prescribing them. This is because in some cases, the disadvantages may outweigh the benefits for the patient.