Nicotine nasal spray as an adjuvant analgesic for third molar surgery.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

Who Took Part

The study group was 20 patients.

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

The study population consisted of 20 nonsmoking patients referred to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of Columbia University College of Dental Medicine for extraction of all 4 TMs.

Each patient received nicotine nasal spray or placebo spray before TM surgery.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) could be set against what happens without it.

In the crossover set-up each of the patients took both Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

A single-center, prospective, randomized, double-blind, crossover trial was conducted.

At a subsequent visit the contralateral TMs were removed with prior administration of the alternate treatment.

For an hour postoperatively, subjects reported information on pain and nausea, and hemodynamic variables were recorded at 15-minute intervals.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Acetaminophen, Analgesics, Analgesics, Non-Narcotic, Analgesics, Opioid, Blood Pressure, Ganglionic Stimulants and Heart Rate.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in 20 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 8 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2011 (Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.