Abstract

Despite evidence that antibiotics abuse is related to unknown pathogen infection, antibiotics are badly overused in China, as common people can easily buy antibiotics in pharmacy stores, even without prescriptions from doctors. The necessity and feasibility of antibiotics treatment after tooth extraction surgery, among the most common surgical operations, remain unclear. We examined the clinical significance of necessity of antibiotics treatment after tooth extraction using 103 patients treated with amoxicillin and metronidazole and 104 subjects treated with vitamin C as control. A randomized, double-blind, placebocontrolled, clinical trial design was performed. Univariate analyses for general characteristics of the study population were performed and there were no significant differences in gender, age, extraction position between the two groups before operation. The operation time was also not significantly different between the two groups. The postoperative complications were evaluated regarding pain, swelling, opening degree and alveolitis. The statistical analysis revealed that postoperative amoxicillin and metronidazole treatment did not produce statistically significant better results than placebo with regard to pain, swelling, opening degree and alveolitis. These findings extend our understanding of antibiotics using after tooth extraction surgery and suggest that this therapeutic strategy does not seem to impose additional benefits to Chinese population.