Chilean Patients’ Perception of Their Oral Health-Related Quality of Life After Bichectomy

OBJECTIVE: To describe the quality of life associated with oral health in patients who have had bichectomy surgery in Chile using the Spanish version of the health-Related Quality of Life instrument (HRQOL-sp). MATERIAL AND METHODS: We designed a cross-sectional study. The HRQOL-sp scale was administered to dental patients in a private clinic who had bichectomy surgery between December 2020 and June 2021. The HRQOL-sp instrument has four domains: oral function, general activity, postoperative signs, symptoms or complications, and pain level. The instrument was administered by telephone survey on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 post-surgery. Interference in quality of life was defined as when patients selected the options “quite a few problems” or “many problems” for oral function and general activity. Signs and symptoms related to post-surgical complications and pain were also described with a verbal rating scale from one to ten. All results were compared between postoperative days according to the domains of the HRQOL-sp scale. RESULTS: Seventy-three patients (age 27.75 ± 8.06 years; 93.15% female) participated. Bichectomy patients report the highest interference in quality of life on the first postoperative day because most were unable to chew (71.23%). On the first and third postoperative days, the most frequent complication was swelling (97.26%), and on the fifth day was ecchymosis (42.47%). The average worst perceived pain was 3.34±2.32 on the verbal analogue scale. The rest of the evaluated items significantly decreased towards the seventh postoperative day (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Interference in quality of life associated with bichectomy surgery is greatest on the first postoperative day. Complications and pain levels decreased significantly over time.