Bhati 2017.

Study characteristics
Methods	Study design: split‐mouth RCT Conducted in: India
Participants	Inclusion criteria: patients requiring bilateral surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molars and willing to take part in the study Exclusion criteria: History of systemic disease such as uncontrolled diabetes, blood dyscrasias Alcoholism Drug abuse Heavy smokers Acute infections (e.g. pericoronitis acute alveolar abscess) Age: 27.43 ± 5.27 years Number evaluated: 30 participants/60 teeth
Interventions	Piezoelectric versus rotary osteotomy technique for bone removal Test group: piezosurgery Control group: conventional rotary hand‐piece (35,000 rpm) Lidocaine 2% with 1:200,000 adrenaline was used for inferior alveolar nerve block along with long buccal nerve block and lingual nerve block. All participants routinely received postoperative dose of oral antibiotics in the form of capsule ampicillin 250 mg plus cloxacillin 250 mg and tablet metronidazole 400 mg 3 times daily for 5 days, and analgesics in a combination of tablet ibuprofen 400 mg and paracetamol 325 mg 3 times daily for 3 days. Participants were recalled on the first, third, and seventh postoperative days for follow‐up.
Outcomes	Pain VAS (0 to 10) Swelling (this was achieved using a 3‐0 silk suture to measure the distance between the angle of lower jaw (G), and each of 4 facial reference point‐linear distances to tragus, lateral canthus, alar, and pogonion were recorded) Trismus (interincisal distances) Paraesthesia: evaluated by light touch (cotton wisp) and 2‐point discrimination Dry socket (Blum criteria)
Notes	Sample size calculation: not reported
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Comment: method of randomisation unclear
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Comment: concealment methods not described
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) patient	Unclear risk	Comment: participants signed an informed consent agreement, but details discussed are unclear
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) assessor	Unclear risk	Comment: unclear who carried out outcome measurements
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Comment: no dropouts mentioned
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Comment: all planned outcomes reported
Other bias	Unclear risk	Comment: split‐mouth study. No mention of when the extraction on the contralateral side took place. No analysis of any carry‐over effect