Analgesic effects of acupuncture on pain after mandibular wisdom tooth extraction

We evaluated the analgesic effects of acupuncture on postoperative pain by comparing patients who underwent routine tooth extraction alone (control group) and those who underwent tooth extraction in combination with acupuncture (experimental group) by the random allocation method. As teeth easy to extract, requiring no gingival incision (grade A) on those difficult to extract, requiring gingival incision or bone cutting (grade B). As local anesthesia, 1.8 ml or 3.6 ml of 2% xylocaine was used. The LI.4, Hegu on both sides and ST.7, Xiaguan and ST.6, Jiache on the affected side were selected. Low frequency electrical acupuncture was performed. When acupuncture was used in combination with tooth extraction, 3 of 22 patients did not develop postoperative pain. In patients with wisdom teeth difficult to extract (grade B), acupuncture used in combination with local anesthesia decreased postoperative pain.