Surgical removal of impacted mandibular wisdom teeth is a frequent intervention, usually
accompanied by unpleasant sequelae (pain, swelling and trismus) in the postoperative period,
sometimes even with possibly serious complications (dry socket/alveolar osteitis and
postoperative infection at the surgical site - SSI). It is therefore advisable to use various
medications and procedures to prevent or alleviate the occurrence of these sequelae and
complications. Accordingly, there is a debate in the literature on the expedience of
perioperative (prophylactic) use of antibiotics. It is interesting that numerous articles
recommending perioperative (prophylactic) antibiotic use to patients undergoing the impacted
mandibular third molar surgery may be found, as well as those providing arguments for the
disagreement with such an approach, considering that its benefits do not outweigh the risks
of adverse side effects, especially due to growing resistance of microorganisms towards
antibiotics, which is a possible serious threat to global health. Concerning the
perioperative (prophylactic) use of antibiotics for this indication, consensus has not yet
been reached, and neither of the views has been verified by convincing scientific evidence.
Having the aforementioned dilemma in mind, the main endpoint of the study was to determine
the validity of perioperative (prophylactic) use of antibiotics as to alleviate customary
sequelae and possible complications after surgical removal of impacted mandibular third
molars and, at the same time, the effectiveness of newer antibiotics (moxifloxacin and
cefixime) when used for this purpose. Moreover, microbiological investigations of
susceptibility of the isolated microorganisms to antibiotics used in this research were
performed, which could verify the clinically obtained results. With this in mind, two major
contributions, based on scientifically verified results, could be expected from the research:
(1) confirmation or refuting the validity of perioperative (prophylactic) antibiotic use to
control sequelae or complications that could follow the impacted mandibular third molar
surgery; and (2) confirmation of the efficacy of fluoroquinolones (moxifloxacin) and
cephalosporins (cefixime) in controlling odontogenic infections.