CASE REPORT   

European Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 2021 April;5(1):36-8

DOI: 10.23736/S2532-3466.20.00212-X

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Inter-menstrual bleeding: a gynecological concern of emerging importance following impacted third molar surgery

Nadeena S. JAYASURIYA ¹ ✉, Indika D. WEERAPPERUMA ², Sakuntha RATNAPREYA ³, Irosha R. PERERA ⁴

¹ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka; ² Kinross Dental Care, Colombo, Sri Lanka; ³ Asiri Surgical Hospital, Colombo, Sri Lanka; ⁴ Department of Community Dentistry, National Dental Hospital, Colombo, Sri Lanka

This focused discourse of opinion is centered on sharing our first-hand experience in a lesser known postoperative consequence of impacted third molar surgery: inter-menstrual bleeding among young females. Two young females complained of unusual inter-menstrual bleeding or spotting soon after lower third molar surgical removals. They both received intra-operative steroids and were on antibiotics preoperatively due to infection. They were not on contraceptives and the surgeries were otherwise uneventful. Unexpected inter-menstrual bleeding had a significant psychological impact on them and both patients were referred for gynecological opinion and were managed conservatively. The impact of a woman’s menstrual cycle and use of oral contraceptives on alveolar osteitis and postoperative pain after the third molar surgery has been discussed in the literature. However, there is surprisingly no published scientific literature on inter-menstrual bleeding as a postoperative consequence of impacted third molar surgery. Instead, this phenomenon has been widely discussed by women in web-based social blogsites. The stress of impacted third molar surgery and or drugs could have been plausibly attributed to this postoperative consequence. Against this backdrop, appraisal of oral and maxillofacial surgeons and general dental practitioners on possible inter-menstrual bleeding after impacted third molar surgery as a gynecological concern of emerging importance could improve patient centered clinical outcomes.

KEY WORDS: Menstruation; Molar, third; Surgery; Complications; Gynecology