A Study of the Effectiveness of Antibiotics on Postoperative Complications After the Removal of Third Molars.

Open Access
- Author:
- Cunning, Jessica Rene
- Area of Honors:
- Health Policy and Administration
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Jonathan Rogers Clark, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Rhonda Be Lue, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- osteitis
antibiotics
dry sockets
infections
wisdom teeth
third molars
interventions
postoperative complications - Abstract:
- While studies have been conducted to examine how to decrease the incidence of osteitis and secondary infections following the removal of third molars, these complications still remain the two most prominent complications after third molar extractions. The findings from this study, however, shed some light on issues that have not been widely supported by previous research. This study was designed to explore the effects of antibiotics on the incidence rates of osteitis and secondary infections, with the expectation that antibiotics would lower the incidence of both osteitis and infections. For this double-blinded, randomized study, data was collected on 254 patients, but the sample population was based on the number of teeth extracted (n=508). Four different interventions were used in this study: 1) placebo on tooth 17; 2) placebo on tooth 32; 3) antibiotic on tooth 17; and 4) antibiotic on tooth 32. Each patient received one of those four interventions in one extraction site, and the other extraction site was the control site. To analyze the effects of interventions on postoperative complications, I created two regression models in which various intrinsic and extrinsic factors were controlled for. The intrinsic variables included gender, age, level of tooth impaction, and tooth number. The extrinsic variables consisted of doctor, location, number of medications, birth control, allergy medications, and nutrition. While the results show that antibiotics significantly decrease the rates of osteitis compared to the placebo intervention and the control site, I find no evidence to support the benefits of antibiotics in preventing infection. Moreover, it is worthy of note that the results suggest that males have significantly higher rates of osteitis when controlling for the use of birth control among women. These findings differ from previous studies. They may suggest that antibiotics are not as useful as they were previously thought to be for combating infections, perhaps due to increased antibiotic resistance, and that there is a gender difference in favor of females, which counters prior studies and prevailing wisdom in the industry.