[Use of floctafenine for dental pain of adults and children; a controlled study. I].

The analgesic activity and tolerance of a new non-narcotic synthetic analgesic derive from quinoline has been experimented in a double blind study. Phloctaphenin (200 mg) was compared with 200 mg of Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). Administration of the drug was randomized: 41 patients received Phloctaphenin and 37 ASA. In addition to normal patients, the study also included menstruating women and, after paediatric check-up, children (i.e. under-12's). The conditions treated included periodontitis, pulpitis, abscesses, caries (with extraction), dysodontiasis and traumas. Patients were subdivided into groups (already treated with analgesics in the previous 24 h, not treated in the previous 24 h, affected by continuous pain, affected by fits of pain, subjects in whom a single drug administration was sufficient, patients in their menstrual period). Account was also taken of the outcome of treatment in relation to meals and of the influence of the association of an antibiotic (always the same). The study showed that both drugs possess analgesic activity but that of Phloctaphenin is statistically superior (almost always highly significant, i.e. P < 0.01) compared to ASA. The same applies to latency and the duration of the effect, the clinical judgment ad the need to administered other drugs. Association with the antibiotic has no influence whatever as might have been presumed considering the period of administration and the times of assessing the pain killing action of the two drugs. Administration before or after meals was irrelevant for both drugs. Statistical study of individual groups confirmed these results. From the viewpoint of side-effects, Phloctaphenin is better tolerated: with this new analgesic, in effect, only 2 debatable cases (4.87%) of side-effects (somnolence) were observed while 6 of the patients treated with ASA (16.20%) presented side-effects: 3 cases of gastric pyrosis (8.10%) before meals and 3 cases (8.10%) of hyperhydrosis after meals.