The effect of dental anxiety on surgical time of mandibular third molar disimpaction

Dental treatment of anxious patients induces stress due to the patients' expectation of pain. This may prolong treatment due to such patients' inability to cooperate during treatment.

The aim of the study was to determine the effect of dental anxiety on surgical time of mandibular third molar (M3) disimpactions at a Nigerian hospital.

A prospective study was conducted at the Oral Surgery clinic of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, between October 2016 and September 2017 to assess the effect of dental anxiety on surgical time of M3 disimpactions using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). The Patients' biodata, clinical and M3 radiologic data were recorded. Surgical durations were also recorded. Data were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows (IBM statistics 23 software).

One hundred and sixteen subjects (64 males, 52 females) were studied. Forty-two subjects (36.2%) were mildly anxious, 67 (57.8%) were moderately anxious, and 7 (6.0%) were highly anxious. The females were more anxious and the overall surgical time (OST) of disimpaction correlated with the anxiety levels of the subjects. The OST increased by approximately 0.8 min with every unit rise in the anxiety score. Other factors that affected OST in the study were M3 depth, type of impaction, and root curvature.

The patients' dental anxiety increased the surgical time of M3 disimpactions. Clinicians should consider the patients' anxiety among the factors that affect the surgical time of M3 disimpactions. Verbally soothing anxious patients and administering anxiolytic when necessary, may help to reduce the patients' anxiety, and hence, prevent surgical time prolongation.