title: Visual analogue scale assessment of postoperative swelling. A study of clinical inflammatory variables subsequent to third-molar surgery.
abstract: Subsequent to removal of impacted lower third molars the interrelationship of four postoperative variables (swelling, pain, trismus, and dysphagia) was assessed. Patient assessment of postoperative swelling using a visual analogue scale (VAS) was easily accepted by a group (n = 40) of patients aged 17 to 46 years. A significantly positive correlation (r = 0.66, p less than 0.01) existed between metric extraoral swelling and VAS-assessed swelling; however, the latter may represent a more sensitive method when swelling is discrete. Both extraorally and VAS-assessed swelling showed no correlation with dysphagia and VAS-assessed pain. Trismus correlated moderately positively with pain and extraoral swelling (r = 0.38, p less than 0.05) and dysphagia (p less than 0.01). In the present study dysphagia showed no correlation with pain. This study shows that registration of postoperative swelling by means of a VAS may be a sensitive and accurate method with obvious practical advantages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: T I
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Berge
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D004487:Edema / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008964:Molar, Third / Q000601:surgery*; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000175:diagnosis; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014081:Tooth Extraction / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014095:Tooth, Impacted / Q000601:surgery; D014313:Trismus / Q000175:diagnosis