Page 117 - Demo

Oral Health-related quality of life after coronectomy for impacted mandibular third molar1156DiscussionThis study investigated the OHRQoL in patients that underwent a coronectomy for an impacted mandibular third molar. Mean OHIP-14 scores were highest during the first three postoperative days and gradually declined during the first postoperative week. Pain was the highest on the first postoperative day and declined gradually. Pain occurs with tissue injury, which leads to the formation of prostaglandins from the enzymatic degradation of arachidonic acid in the lipid membrane by cyclooxygenase (COX).17 Then, as the membrane lipids are restored by tissue repair mechanisms, pain is gradually reduced each day. Analgesics inhibit the COX enzyme, and thus, inhibit the production of prostaglandins, which minimizes pain sensation. Therefore, analgesics affect the pain score. In the present study, patients received 600 mg ibuprofen 3 times per day, and when necessary they were instructed to combine the 600 mg of ibuprofen with 1000 mg of acetaminophen (paracetamol). The analgesic intake in this study was highest on the third day (mean: 3.76) and lowest on the seventh day postoperative (mean: 1.86). In the present study, we found no significant differences in OHIP-14 and pain scores between males and females. Our findings were in contrast with those of Fillingim et al.18, who reported that some forms of pain were more prevalent among females than among males. They found that women experienced more pain than men in oralrelated issues, such as tooth pain and jaw joint pain.18 Another study found that women reported more pain then men after an invasive oral surgical procedure.19 However, other studies reported no differences in pain between the sexes after oral surgery.20,21 We found that the degree of impaction, according to Gregory and Pell’s classification of the third mandibular molar, did not impact the pain score. In contrast to the expectation that surgery on more deeply impacted mandibular third molars would have a more significant impact on the OHRQoL, we did not find any significant difference in the degree of pain experienced for different degrees of impaction. Nevertheless, we found a high positive correlation between physical pain and the OHRQoL, consistent with our findings regarding the pain domain of the OHIP-14 questionnaire.22 Indeed, ‘physical pain’ was the highest contributor to the overall OHIP-14 score. Therefore, the pain score could be used to predict the effects of pain on the QoL after a coronectomy.