Paracetamol and diflunisal for pain relief following third molar surgery in Hong Kong Chinese

Abstract

In a double blind study in Hong Kong Chinese, 250 mg of diflunisal, 500 mg of paracetamol or placebo were given for post-operative pain relief following 77 third molar surgical procedures. The intensity of pain was recorded on a visual analogue scale. The first and second doses of paracetamol reduced pain significantly more than placebo, while this was true only for the second dose of diflunisal. There was no significant difference in pain reduction with the first and second dose of paracetamol, when compared with the first and the second dose of diflunisal. In this study in Hong Kong Chinese, neither the dose nor the interval between ingestion of the analgesic tablets in patients, who needed analgesics for postoperative pain, were significantly different to that reported before in non-Chinese, in contrast to the popular belief that Chinese patients have higher pain thresholds. However, a higher proportion of Chinese than that reported in non-Chinese did not need any analgesics for relief of postoperative pain.