Comparison of the Efficacy of Midazolam and Dexmedetomidine As Sedative Agents in Third Molar Surgery

Introduction Minor dental and oral surgical procedures have been made comfortable with the rise in the use of daycare sedatives. Of these sedatives, midazolam is deemed a common sedative used for minor oral surgical procedures. Newer and safer sedatives such as dexmedetomidine have certain properties that may prove more efficient in oral surgical procedures. Third molar surgery is one of the most common minor oral surgical procedures performed in dentistry. Thus, this study aims to compare the efficacy of midazolam and dexmedetomidine as sedative agents in third molar surgery. Materials and methods Sixty young adult patients free from other comorbidities were included in the study with ages ranging between 18 and 50 years. The samples were matched for the difficulty of impacted teeth and randomly distributed among the groups. Groups were administered the respective sedative drugs midazolam and dexmedetomidine and their effects were observed through the Observer's Assessment of Alertness/Sedation scale. The intraoperative vitals and sedation effects were checked every 15 minutes. Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22 (Released 2013; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). Independent samples t-test and analysis of variance were the statistical tests employed to analyze the obtained data with p