The efficacy of 1% Betadine mouthwash on the incidence of dry socket after mandibular third molar surgery

BACKGROUND: Dry socket or alveolar osteitis is a delayed healing of alveolar bone after exodontia causing moderate to severe pain 2-4 days after extraction of teeth. Antibacterial agents such as antibiotics and chlorhexidine have been previously proved to prevent or reduce the incidence of dry socket. Betadine is a mixture of iodine and povidone which has bactericidal, antifungal and antiviral effects. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of preoperative povidone iodine 1% mouthwash before surgical extraction of impacted mandibular third molar, however age, gender and oral hygiene were also considered. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 189 patients who needed surgical extraction of Pell and Gregory class A and B mandibular third molars were included in this study. The patients who were not willing to participate in the study, took, women who took oral contraceptives or were in the first 22 days of menstrual cycle were excluded. Patients were randomly assigned to control or test group. 97 patients in the test group took preoperative povidone iodine 1% mouthwash and 92 patients in the control group didn’t take any antibiotic or mouthwash. Patients were examined in days 3 and 7 postoperatively for incidence of alveolar osteitis. RESULTS: Chi-square test didn’t show any significant relation between dry socket incidence and gender (p value: 0.848) and Oral hygiene (p value: 0.866). However, it revealed a significant relation between age and dry socket incidence (p value: 0.003) and patients older than 30 were reported to have higher incidence of dry socket. Independent T-Test showed a significant difference between the test and control group in incidence of dry socket (p value: 0.036). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of this study povidone iodine 1% mouthwash can decrease dry socket incidence also as the age increases, the incidence of dry socket becomes higher. Key words:Dry socket, impaction, betadine, povidone iodine.