Table 2.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria	Exclusion criteria
Healthy adult patients (> 18 years) undergoing transalveolar extraction of impacted MM3	Perioperative administration of a CS other than DXM in any patient group
Only randomised or quasi randomised clinical trials including parallel-group or split-mouth studies with not less than ten patients in each group	MM3 clinical trials comparing DXM with other pharmacological agents such as NSAIDS, etc.
Studies in which DXM has been peri-operatively administered in at least two patient groups by a systemic route [IV/IM/PO/IO/SL] and a local route [EA/SM/Loc IM/PMS]	Clinical Trials where the comparisons of post-operative outcome are only amongst either the local or systemic DXM routes
72 h after surgery (Pain- VAS, Oedema- facial swelling measured by the distance between at least two facial points, Trismus- Reduced interincisal distance)	Clinical Trials where the post-operative outcome of local/systemic route of DXM are compared against a control/placebo
Restricted to publications in the English language over 25 years, viz. 1 January 1996—31 December 2020