Influence of the tongue cleanness in alveolitis, pain and edema

The removal of bacterial plates on dental structures as well as the cleanness of the tongue can favor the reduction of the index of infections after tooth extraction. Objectives: The objective was to investigate the influence of the cleanness the dorsum of the tongue in the alveolitis incidence after unerupted third molar surgery ones with the use of the Kolbe cleaner and to evaluate the behavior of this cleanness in the reduction of pain, edema and trismus after traumatic teeth extractions. Methods: So, 22 patients had been submitted to 44 surgical procedure of impacted third molars and divided in two groups: GI: tooth extraction without the previous professional cleanness of the tongue; GII: tooth extraction after the cleanness of the tongue realized at preoperative, 24, 48 and 72 postoperative hours. The pain was quantified by visual analogue scale (VAS), edema by the linear method of Neupert and the trismus (distance between the upper and lower left central incisors) on the periods 0 hours, 24, 48 and 72 hours after the extractions. The alveolitis was diagnosted through severe pain at third day post-extraction, bad odor and bad taste. Results: The pain showed in the 3 postoperative periods average minors in the GII, with statistical differences to the level of 1% of significance. Edema was lesser in GII (p<0,05) and had not been observed significant differences in the limitation of mouth opening. It had manifestation of alveolar osteitis in one patient of the GI (4,54%). Conclusions: It can be concluded that the cleanness of the tongue with Kolbe cleaner allowed to get average minors of pain and edema in postoperative periods, what it guaranteed greaters comforts after tooth extractions.