We compared the effects of preoperative administration of diclofenac sodium, celecoxib, and acetaminophen on postoperative pain in patients undergoing minor oral surgery under general anesthesia. One hundred twenty-eight patients were randomly divided into 4 groups preoperatively treated with diclofenac sodium 50 mg, celecoxib 400 mg, acetaminophen 1000 mg, or placebo. Postoperative pain was managed using intravenous patient-controlled infusion of fentanyl. Assessments included levels of postoperative pain by using visual analog scale (VAS) scores at 4, 5, and 6 hours after administration of the test drug; consumption of fentanyl up to each time point; and time to first requirement for fentanyl. Our study demonstrated that, for diclofenac sodium and celecoxib in comparison with placebo, there were significantly lower VAS scores at 4, 5, and 6 hours after oral administration of the study drug; a longer period of time to first requirement for fentanyl after surgery; and less consumption of postoperative fentanyl. A similar analgesic effect versus placebo was noted for acetaminophen but only at the 5- and 6-hour time points. In contrast, no significant differences in VAS scores at 4 hours after administration or time to first requirement for fentanyl were observed between acetaminophen and placebo. Furthermore, no significant differences in measurements were observed between the study drugs at any time point. These findings suggest that oral administration of celecoxib 400 mg is suitable for controlling postoperative pain, and as effective as diclofenac sodium 50 mg. Acetaminophen 1000 mg also exerts analgesic effect with slower onset for postoperative pain.

Maintaining oral hygiene is an important yet often neglected aspect of rehabilitation medicine. Our visiting dental team, which provides dental treatments and swallowing rehabilitation, partnered with a medical hospital that had no dental department and began visiting and treating inpatients at this hospital. This study is aimed at evaluating the effects of dysphagia rehabilitation, and this was jointly conducted by medical and dental hospitals. The survey was conducted between May 2017 and March 2018. We retrospectively examined dysphagia rehabilitation provided to 25 patients (12 men and 13 women) aged 40–92 years (mean age: 77.1 ± 12.3 years). The largest number of requests for dental treatment was received from the internal medicine department (13 requests, 52.0%). A total of 39 videofluoroscopic or videoendoscopic examinations of swallowing interventions for dysphagia rehabilitation were conducted. All patients’ oral and swallowing functions were evaluated using the functional oral intake scale (FOIS). At initial assessment, 9, 13, and 0 patients were at FOIS levels 1, 2, and 3 (use of tube feeding), respectively, and 1, 2, and 0 patients were at FOIS levels 4, 5, and 6 (only oral feeding), respectively. At the final assessment, 6, 10, and 4 patients were at FOIS levels 1, 2, and 3, respectively, and 0, 2, and 3 patients were at FOIS levels 4, 5, and 6, respectively. Oral and swallowing functions differed significantly between the first and final visits ( p = 0.02 ). Visits conducted by a team of oral health practitioners to a medical hospital without a dental department appear to have a major impact and will become even more important in the future.