Comparison of postoperative complications of envelope flap and triangular flap in surgical removal of mandibular third molar teeth, a double blind split-mouth study

Introduction: Surgical removal of third mandibular molar is a common procedure in oral surgery. This procedure may have some complications. The aim of the present study was evaluation of the complications of envelope flap and triangular flap in surgical removal of mandibular third molar teeth. Materials and Methods: this study was a double blind split mouth randomized technique. Sixty eight lower wisdom teeth from 34 patients were surgically removed. The triangular and envelope flaps were applied for each side and pain, edema and wound healing were assessed in second and seventh days after surgery. Data wereanalyzed by SPSS 21 software using non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Ranks and t-test. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant level. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between these two type of flaps in present of pain, edema and wound healing after surgery. Conclusions: According to the results of the present study, selection of flap design depends on many variables like surgeon’s preference and skill.