Postoperative Pain Control Following the Use of Pre-emptive Celecoxib in Mandibular Third Molar Surgical Extraction: A Randomised Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial in Kano, Nigeria

ABSTRACTBackground: Mandibular third molar surgery is often associated with pain that can cause considerable discomfort. Pre-emptive analgesia for the control of postoperative pain is targeted at preventing central sensitization before initiating surgical trauma. Some studies have reported promising outcomes with pre-emptive analgesia, whereas others have questioned its benefits, leading Group A received pre-emptive celecoxib, while group B received a placebo. Postoperative pain intensity, the frequency of rescue analgesic use and the time to the first request were the parameters evaluated. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 22.0 with the level of statistical significance set at p<0.05. Results: Postoperative pain intensity, analysed using an independent t-test, showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups at 4 hours (p = 0.02), 8 hours (p = 0.01), 16 hours (p < 0.001) and 24 hours (p <0.001). The mean time to the first request for rescue analgesia was significantly prolonged in the study group (p = 0.003). Conclusion: Pre-emptive celecoxib exhibited significant post-operative pain control. It reduced the need for rescue analgesics in patients within the first 24 hours of mandibular third molar surgery.