Ibuprofen intake after apicoectomy–Quantitative indicator for postoperative pain

BACKGROUND: Apicoectomy is one of the procedures that are most frequently performed by specialists in oral surgery. This paper presents an analysis of Ibuprofen consumption after apicoectomy and factors such as patient’s age, sex and type of resected tooth. Ibuprofen intake is treated as a quantitative indicator of pain sensation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The presented data cover 89 operations with 98 resected teeth. All those apicoectomies were performed by one and the same specialist in oral surgery and all patients were scheduled for a control examination on the day following the intervention. The reported Ibuprofen intake was recorded and analyzed afterwards. RESULTS: The mean number of consumed Ibuprofen 400 mg tablets, necessary to eliminate the pain was 1.71 (SD±1.33). Gender was not established as responsible for statistically significant differences. Poor negative statistical correlation was established between age and number of consumed tablets. Older patients used a smaller amount of analgesics. The intake after resection of mandibular molars was statistically significantly higher versus that of the other teeth groups. Eighteen of the patients did not consume any analgesic tablets, constituting 18.3% of the whole group. Two patients needed 5 tablets which was the greatest reported intake. CONCLUSIONS: Apicoectomy leads to low Ibuprofen intake. The sex is not a statistically significant factor for Ibuprofen use. Poor negative correlation is observed between age and the amount of administered analgesics. This consumption is increased at resection of mandibular molars compared to that for other teeth groups. Almost one fifth of the patients did not need analgesics during the first postoperative day. Key words:Apicoectomy, postoperative pain, Ibuprofen, oral surgery.