Surgical removal of impacted mandibular wisdom teeth is a frequent intervention, usually accompanied by unpleasant sequelae (pain, swelling and trismus) in the postoperative period, sometimes even with possibly serious complications (dry socket/alveolar osteitis and postoperative infection at the surgical site - SSI). It is therefore advisable to use various medications and procedures to prevent or alleviate the occurrence of these sequelae and complications. Accordingly, there is a debate in the literature on the expedience of perioperative (prophylactic) use of antibiotics. It is interesting that numerous articles recommending perioperative (prophylactic) antibiotic use to patients undergoing the impacted mandibular third molar surgery may be found, as well as those providing arguments for the disagreement with such an approach, considering that its benefits do not outweigh the risks of adverse side effects, especially due to growing resistance of microorganisms towards antibiotics, which is a possible serious threat to global health. Concerning the perioperative (prophylactic) use of antibiotics for this indication, consensus has not yet been reached, and neither of the views has been verified by convincing scientific evidence. Having the aforementioned dilemma in mind, the main endpoint of the study was to determine the validity of perioperative (prophylactic) use of antibiotics as to alleviate customary sequelae and possible complications after surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molars and, at the same time, the effectiveness of newer antibiotics (moxifloxacin and cefixime) when used for this purpose. Moreover, microbiological investigations of susceptibility of the isolated microorganisms to antibiotics used in this research were performed, which could verify the clinically obtained results. With this in mind, two major contributions, based on scientifically verified results, could be expected from the research: (1) confirmation or refuting the validity of perioperative (prophylactic) antibiotic use to control sequelae or complications that could follow the impacted mandibular third molar surgery; and (2) confirmation of the efficacy of fluoroquinolones (moxifloxacin) and cephalosporins (cefixime) in controlling odontogenic infections.
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Rate of postoperative infection at the surgical site (SSI)
Timeframe: Up to 12 weeks (3 months) after surgery.