Influence of surgical ultrasound used in flap detachment in lower third molar surgeries: a prospective, randomized, double-blind and split-mouth clinical study

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of tissue detachment by surgical ultrasound in the postoperative period of lower third molar extraction surgery. MATERIAL AND METHOD: ten patients with the two lowers third molars indicated for exodontia were included in the study. During the exodontia, one of the teeth was included in the Piezo group, where flap detachment was performed with ultrasound motor tips, while in the Control group the detachment was performed with a Molt elevator. The patients were evaluated at 1, 3, 7 and 14 postoperative days. The parameters evaluated were surgical time, pain, trismus and edema. RESULTS: the mean surgical time of 10.07 minutes for the Control group and 17.21 minutes for the Piezo group. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups with regard to pain and trismus in any of the assessed periods (P> 0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in edema between the Piezo group and the control group at 3 days post-operatively, with larger edema in the Control group (P = 0.038). However, in the other periods analyzed, there was no difference in edema (P> 0.05). CONCLUSION: the use of surgical ultrasound in tissue flap detachment in lower third molar extraction surgery resulted in less edema in the initial postoperative stages, but did not influence the other analyzed parameters (trismus and pain)