Double-blind parallel comparison of multiple doses of ketorolac, ketoprofen and placebo administered orally to patients with postoperative dental pain.

Ketorolac 10 and 20 mg, ketoprofen 50 mg and placebo were compared in a multiple-dose, double-blind, randomized analgesic study that included 150 patients with pain after impacted third molar removal. Patients evaluated their study medication over a 48 h period. Bivariate and multivariate analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the different medications studied, evaluated by the consumption of rescue medication (50.4-80.4% of the placebo group required rescue versus 17.0-47.6% of the ketoprofen, 5.7-31.9% of the ketorolac 10 mg and 1.8-22.5% of the ketorolac 20 mg groups), the pain relief experienced by the patient (P<0.05), and the overall efficacy of the medication (P<0.05). The efficacy of ketorolac 10 mg did not differ from that of ketorolac 20 mg, and both were more efficacious than ketoprofen 50 mg, which in turn was more efficacious than the placebo. One-third of the placebo group did not require rescue medication. The factors with the greatest influence on the use of rescue medication were the analgesic taken by the patient and the presence or not of postoperative inflammation.