Hemostasis control in dental extractions in patients receiving oral anticoagulant therapy: An approach with calcium sulfate

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of calcium sulfate (CaS) as a hemostatic agent after tooth extraction in patients with anticoagulant drug therapy. A total of 30 patients undergoing anticoagulant therapy (22 women and 8 men) with a mean age of 54.6 years (SD = 9.2 years), needing dental extractions, were selected for this study. They were divided into 2 groups, control (group 1) and test (group 2), in a randomized way. In group 1 patients, the postextraction socket was managed with obliterative suture only. Group 2 patients were treated with CaS placed into the postextraction sockets. All the patients did not interrupt the anticoagulant therapy during the dental treatment. The healing pattern was found to be approximately similar in all treatment groups, showing significant improvement at each consecutive visit. However, a statistically significant difference in the adequate hemostasis was evident between groups 1 and 2 (P = 0.0056). The use of CaS helped to control the bleeding from inside the socket, producing instantly a very good hemostasis. Further studies are necessary to confirm the simplicity, possibilities, and limits of the proposed procedure.