Does Third Molar Surgery Alter Cardiac Parameters? A Retrospective Study

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate perioperative changes in the cardiac parameters of anxiety, which are blood pressure and heart rate, in patients undergoing surgical extraction of third molars. Material and Methods: Patients who reported anxiety before scheduled procedures were monitored for cardiac parameters before, during and after the surgery. The obtained data were analyzed to determine if there is a certain pattern of change within these values in systemically healthy patients. Alterations in selected parameters with regard to duration and difficulty of operation were also studied. IBM SPSS Statistics was used for data analysis. Repeated-measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA), paired samples t-test and Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied and a significance level of 5% was assessed. Results: Difficulty was categorized as minimally, moderately or very difficult in 9, 28 and 3 patients respectively. Mean operation time was 36.18 minutes with a range of 8 to 91 minutes. Operation time showed no variations with different levels of difficulty (p = 0.268). No statistical differences in any of the parameters listed above could be identified. Conclusion: Despite the common belief that dental procedures initiate anxiety, this study reveals that physiological parameters of anxiety show no significant changes over the course of third molar surgery, likewise difficulty and duration of surgery do not cause noteworthy changes in these parameters.