Comparison of the Effectiveness of the Methanolic Extract of Green Tea and Chlorhexidine Gel on Pain after Impacted Wisdom Tooth Extraction

One of the main complications of wisdom tooth surgery is postoperative pain. Thus, various methods have been used to reduce postoperative dental pain. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the methanolic extract of green tea and chlorhexidine gel on pain after impacted wisdom tooth extraction.
The participants in this double-blind clinical trial study were 72 patients aged 18 to 40 years who had impacted wisdom teeth in the mandible requiring surgery. To reduce postoperative dental pain, 5% green tea extract and 0.2% chlorhexidine gel were used for one week after surgery. The collected data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, frequency, and repeated measures ANOVA at a confidence level of 0.95.
The intensity of postoperative pain was at the highest level in both green tea and chlorhexidine gel groups on the first day and the pain intensity gradually decreased until the seventh day. The pain score reported by the patients using green tea was slightly lower than the pain score for the patients using chlorhexidine gel. However, there was no statistically significant intergroup difference in terms of the mean pain score (P = 0.21). There was a statistically significant difference between the groups that used green tea and chlorhexidine in terms of the number of analgesics used after surgery (P = 0.04). The mean number of analgesics used by the participants in the chlorhexidine group was higher.
Green tea extract can be recommended as an effective compound in reducing the severity of pain after impacted wisdom tooth extraction.