Page 177 - Demo

17510SummaryThis thesis is a result of several studies assessing the impact of oral and maxillofacial procedures on patients’ oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). It is recognized that poor oral health status can cause considerable pain and suffering. Untreated oral symptoms can be a major source of diminished quality of life, disturbing a patient’s food choices or their speech, or leading to sleep deprivation, depression, and multiple adverse psychosocial outcomes. OHRQoL is a tool with which to understand and shape clinical practice, dental research, and dental education. It is associated with functional factors, psychological factors, social factors, and experience of pain or discomfort. In this thesis we use the OHIP-14 questionnaires as a measure of OHRQoL in clinical oral and maxillofacial practice to assess the effects of different surgical procedures on patients’ postoperative subjective experience. Chapter 1 is the introduction; it outlines the thesis and provides the scientific rationales for the different studies. In Chapter 2, we measured patients’ physical and psychological responses to local anesthesia for the surgical removal of a third molar. We hypothesized that patients with a high pain response (>7) on a 11-point numerical rating scale (NRS), would have a higher physical response than patients from the lowpain response group (NRS <7). We used different questionnaires, such as an 11-point NRS to obtain information on the expected and experienced pain of the injection, the Dental Anxiety Inventory (S-DAI), the Profile of Mood States (POMS), the State-trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Nexus-10 device to register the heart rate, respiration, and galvanic skin response. One can argue that all the preoperative questionnaires, especially, would induce fatigue bias in the patients. When we examined the results, only 8 of the total 66 patients were found to be in the high-pain group, making a comparison with the lowpain group (N = 58) challenging. An interesting finding was the physiological response. The heart rate and sweat secretion were significantly lower, when the oral and maxillofacial surgeon was already present in the operation theatre when the patient entered.