Does low dose of etoricoxib play pre-emptive analgesic effect in third molar surgery? A randomized clinical trial

BACKGROUND: How to prevent pain after the extraction of impacted teeth is a serious challenge for all patients. The purpose of this clinical trial was to investigate whether pre-emptive low dose of etoricoxib can reduce postoperative pain in patients undergoing third molars surgery. METHODS: Patients were randomised to receive etoricoxib 60 mg or placebo 30 min before surgery. Post-operative pain was recorded using a visual analogue scale during 24 h within the post-operative period. The total dose of ibuprofen rescue intake was recorded. Kaplan–Meier curves and log-rank analyses were used to evaluate the proportion of patients without rescue analgesic. RESULTS: Scores for the post-operative pain in the etoricoxib group were significantly lower than those in the placebo group during first 12 h (p < 0.05). The number of patients without analgesic rescue medication was significantly lower in the etoricoxib group than in the placebo group. The average amount of rescue medication in the etoricoxib group (0.4 ± 0.9 dose) was lower than that in the placebo group (1.1 ± 0.9 doses, p = 0.004). Etoricoxib resulted in the long-term survival of patients without rescue analgesic (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that etoricoxib has a substantial pre-emptive analgesic effect, resulting in the reduced use of analgesics after third molar removal. Trial registration: Registered on ChiCTR1900024503. Date of Registration: 13/07/2019. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12903-021-01837-0.