The effects of postoperative preparatory information on the clinical course following third molar extraction

Previous studies have shown that perioperative patient education providing coping strategies and/or reasonable expectations regarding the postoperative course can help lessen patient anxiety and decrease pain, complications, and recovery time. This study investigated these effects following extraction of third molars.

Forty patients scheduled to undergo surgical extraction under local anesthetic and intravenous conscious sedation were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Treatment group members were given postoperative instructions that included descriptive information regarding potential sequelae (eg, pain, edema, trismus, nausea) as well as detailed information regarding analgesic use. Control group members were given basic open-ended postoperative wound care instructions. Postoperative pain and satisfaction with pain control were recorded using visual analogue scales. Analgesic consumption was also recorded. Thirty-seven patients completed the protocol.

Patients in the treatment group reported significantly less pain during the period from 12 to 18 hours, and at 24 hours postoperatively, but there was no significant difference in analgesic consumption between groups. Patient satisfaction with pain control was significantly greater in the treatment group.

These results indicate that increasing the quantity of postoperative preparatory information significantly increases pain relief and resultant satisfaction with pain control without increasing analgesic consumption.