Eighty-eight outpatients with postoperative pain after the surgical removal of impacted third molars were randomly assigned, on a double-blind basis, to receive a single, oral dose of flurbiprofen 100 mg, acetaminophen 600 mg, a combination of acetaminophen 600 mg with codeine 60 mg, or placebo. Using a self-rating record, subjects rated their pain and its relief hourly for 12 hours after medicating. Estimates of sum of pain intensity differences, peak pain intensity differences, total relief, peak relief, and hours of 50% relief were derived from these subjective reports. Flurbiprofen and the acetaminophen-codeine combination were significantly superior to placebo for every measure of total and peak analgesia and significantly superior to acetaminophen alone for most measures of efficacy. Based on the 12-hour data, acetaminophen alone did not differ significantly from placebo; however, it was superior to placebo for measures of total effect based on the 4-hour data. Flurbiprofen was significantly superior to the acetaminophen codeine combination with respect to the number of hours until remedication. All medications had manifested an effect by hour 1; analgesia persisted for 12 hours for flurbiprofen, 6 hours for acetaminophen-codeine, and 3 hours for acetaminophen alone. The frequency of adverse effects was similar for the active medications.