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. 2013 Sep;54(5):335-8.
doi: 10.4103/0300-1652.122360.

Alveolar Osteitis: Patients' compliance to post-extraction instructions following extraction of molar teeth

Osagie Akpata  1 , Osawe Felix Omoregie  2 , Foluso Owotade  3
Affiliations

Alveolar Osteitis: Patients' compliance to post-extraction instructions following extraction of molar teeth

Osagie Akpata et al. Niger Med J. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Background: To evaluate the effect of various combination of post-extraction regimen administered to patients who had intra-alveolar molar tooth extraction.

Patients and methods: One year prospective study involving 76 consenting patients who came for 1-week post-extraction review. The patients were placed on warm saline mouth rinse with (verbal instruction) or without antibiotic and or analgesic therapy (written prescription), after intra-alveolar molar tooth extraction. Information was obtained from the patients through questionnaire and clinical examination.

Results: The patients were placed on warm saline mouth rinse (n = 29, 38.2%) only, warm saline rinse, antibiotics (Amoxicillin and metronidazole) and Paracetamol (n = 31, 40.8%), Paracetamol and warm saline rinse (n = 12, 15.8%) and antibiotics (Amoxicillin and metronidazole) and Paracetamol (n = 4, 5.3%). A total of 63 (82.9%) patients complied with the post-extraction regimen, giving a significant high compliance to the post-extraction instructions (P = 0.001). There were 10 (13.2%) cases of post-extraction localised alveolar osteitis, with predilection for the lower molar teeth (n = 6, 7.9%) and a significant predilection for females (n = 8, 10.5%) [P = 0.005]. Overall, there were five (6.6%) cases each of localised alveolar osteitis in the compliant patients (n = 63, 82.9%) and non-compliant patients (n = 13, 17.1%), giving a ratio of 1:13 and 1:3, respectively. There was significant association of compliance with post-extraction instruction and the reduced incidence of localized alveolar osteitis (P = 0.015).

Conclusion: This study showed a significant patients' compliance with post-extraction warm saline rinse, prophylactic antibiotics and analgesic and a corresponding significant reduction in the incidence of localised alveolar osteitis following intra-alveolar molar tooth extraction. This study emphasises the need to properly educate patients on the effect of compliance to various combination of post-extraction regimen.

Keywords: Alveolar osteitis; molar tooth extraction; post-extraction regimen.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

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