Community dentistry and oral epidemiology
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Community Dent Oral Epidemiol · Jun 2010
Independent predictors of satisfaction in impacted third molar surgery patients.
Patient satisfaction and dissatisfaction are critical dimensions leading to favorable or unfavorable treatment outcomes. Although impacted third molar (ITM) surgery is one of the most common dental surgical procedures, it is a challenging operation because of numerous potential complications and patients generally suffer from severe psychosomatic symptoms as a result of severe perioperative anxiety. We hypothesize that multiple independent factors, including perioperative anxiety and various postoperative complications, affect satisfaction of the ITM surgery patients. ⋯ This study demonstrates that the patients who undergo ITM surgery often have severe anxiety that seriously impacts patient satisfaction and resultant treatment outcomes. In addition, patient satisfaction directly depends on the occurrence of some postoperative complications. Appreciation of these predictive factors and increasing patient satisfaction may help clinicians to provide optimal care for ITM surgery patients.