Analgesic effects of acupuncture on pain after mandibular wisdom tooth extraction

We evaluated the analgesic effect a of acupuncture on postoperative pain by comparing patients who underwent routine tooth extraction alone (control g roup) and those who underwent tooth extraction in combination with acupunct ure (experimental group) by the random allocation method. As teeth easy to extract, requiring no gingival incision (grade A) or those difficult to ext ract, requiring gingival incision or bone cutting (grade B). As local anest hesia, 1.8 ml or 3.6 ml of 2% xylocaine was used. The LI.4, Hegu on both si des and ST.7, Xiaguan and ST.6, Jiache on the affected side were selected. Low frequency electrical acupuncture was performed. When acupuncture was us ed in combination with tooth extraction, 3 of 22 patients did not develop p ostoperative pain. In patients with wisdom teeth difficult to extract (grad e B), acupuncture used in combination with local anesthesia decreased posto perative pain.