Perceived burdens during oral surgery

Objectives: In recent years, patient-based measures, namely patients' satisfaction and oral health-related quality of life, are gaining increasing attention in dentistry. Whereas several studies investigated patient-reported outcomes of dental interventions, knowledge regarding patients' perception of dental treatment procedures is limited. It was aim of this study to assess perceived burdens of patients during oral surgery using a newly developed questionnaire. Methods: A sample of 297 consecutive patients (mean age: 37.8±17.9 years; 48.5% female) receiving oral surgery was included in the study. Perceived burdens during treatment were assessed after completed treatment using a newly developed 28-item questionnaire combining all treatment steps of oral surgery. Responses were made on visual analogue scales ranging from 0-“very unpleasant” to 100-“very comfortable”. Results are presented as means of all items of the questionnaire and for three empirically derived dimensions of surgical treatment (anesthesia, osteotomy, and side-effects) including 95% confidence intervals (CI) of mean scores for all participants and subgroups (gender and age group, defined by median of age: 31 years). Differences in perceived burdens between dimensions and subgroups were tested for statistical significance using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test. Results: Surgical procedures were perceived by patients mainly as unpleasant (20.3, 95%CI:19.1-21.5) with higher perceived burdens for side-effects (e.g., mouth opening, flavor, treatment length; 15.6, CI:14.1-17.1) than for osteotomy or anesthesia (20.4, CI:18.8-22.1; 31.9, CI:30.1-33.8; ANOVA: p<0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in mean scores with respect to gender (t-test: p>0.05). However, older patients perceived oral surgery more unpleasing than younger patients did (17.0, CI:15.6-18.5 vs. 23.5, CI:21.7-25.2, t-test: p<0.001). Conclusions: Surgical treatments in dentistry are perceived by patients as unpleasant with higher perceived burdens in older than in younger patients and substantial differences with respect to different steps during the surgical procedure.