Clinical Effectiveness of Green Tea Extracts as a Local Haemostatic Agent Following Mandibular Molar Extraction.

Objective: To determine the clinical effectiveness of different green tea extracts (GTEs) in reducing bleeding after extraction of mandibular molars.

Study design: Randomised controlled trial. Place and Duration of the Study: College of Dentistry, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia, from October to December 2022.

Methodology: A total of 64 patients were selected from those who attended dental clinics at the College of Dentistry, King Khalid University for extraction of their mandibular molars. They were equally and randomly divided into a control and three test groups by asking the patient to choose a numbered piece of paper. In the first group, normal saline-soaked sterile gauze was used after the tooth extraction while in the three test groups, different GTEs (methanolic GTE, aqueous GTE, and tannin isolated from the green tea) were applied. Monitoring of the bleeding by observing the extraction socket was carried out at regular intervals of five minutes until the oozing subsided, and then once an hour after that.

Results: Each group had 16 patients. The mean of bleeding stop-minutes was significantly different among the groups (61.56 minutes for the control group, 7.50 minutes 8.44 minutes and 5.62 minutes for the test groups, p <0.001). The median of bleeding stop-minutes of the control group was significantly higher than all test groups (p <0.001). The number of patients in whom bleeding was continued one hour after surgery was significantly higher in the control group (p = 0.005). Moreover, tannin has the greatest haemostatic effect compared to aqueous and methanolic GTEs.

Conclusion: Significant haemostatic effect has been shown by all GTEs. Tannin isolated from green tea has shown a significantly higher haemostatic effect than to the aqueous and methanolic extracts.

Key words: Bleeding, Green tea extracts, Haemostasis, Tannin isolate, Molar extraction.