Assessment of early wound healing, pain intensity, quality of life and related influencing factors during periodontal surgery: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: This cross-sectional study assessed early wound healing, pain intensity, quality of life, surgical satisfaction, and related factors during periodontal surgery. METHODS: A total of 369 patients completed the questionnaire before undergoing periodontal surgery (baseline), immediately after the operation (phase I), on the day of suture removal (phase II), and one month later (phase III). The Early Wound Healing Score (EHS) was assessed, and the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ), tooth hypersensitivity visual analog scale (VAS), oral health-related quality of life measure (OHQoL-UK), and surgical satisfaction VAS were administered and analysed. RESULTS: The EHS was 8.41 ± 2.74 and was influenced by disease severity and surgical factors. Scores on the SF-MPQ, pain intensity scores, and OHQoL-UK scores were significantly increased in phase I and decreased later. Tooth sensitivity decreased significantly one month after periodontal surgery. Psychological factors were positively related to SF-MPQ, pain intensity, OHQoL-UK and tooth sensitivity VAS scores in all phases, while disease severity and surgical factors were only related to these scores at baseline or in phases I/II/III. Surgical acceptance and reoperation willingness continuously decreased after surgery, and all these scores were related to surgical satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: EHS, pain intensity and quality of life were closely related to disease severity, psychological factors and surgical factors in phase I (i.e., immediately after surgery). The findings suggest that surgical details should be enhanced and that behavioural and psychological interventions measures should be implemented to improve outcomes during periodontal operation and during the early postoperative period as well as to improve patient-oriented periodontal surgery experiences. Trial registration This cross-sectional study did not include interventions with human participants, and all the experimental procedures involving humans in this study were approved by the Ethics Committee of West China College of Stomatology, Sichuan University (WCHSIRB-D-2020–284). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12903-022-02630-3.