title: Patients' perceptions of implant placement surgery, the post-surgical healing and the transitional implant prostheses: a qualitative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to explore patients' thoughts, feelings about, and experiences of, implant placement surgery (IPS), the post-surgical healing stage and the immediate post-surgical transitional implant prosthesis (TIP) (fixed and removable).
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative study design was chosen and 38 semi-structured telephone and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 34 patients at different stages of implant treatment. The interviews were transcribed verbatim; the data collection and coding process followed the principles of thematic analysis, which was facilitated through the use of NVivo10.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients anticipated that surgery would be painful and unpleasant but were prepared to accept this temporary discomfort for the expected benefits of implant treatment. However, a key finding was that patients felt they had overestimated the trauma of surgery but underestimated the discomfort and difficulties of the healing phase. A number of difficulties were also identified with the TIP phase following implant surgery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Existing research has tended to focus on the longer term benefits of dental implant treatment. This qualitative study has investigated in-depth patients' perceptions of dental implant surgery, including their experiences related to sedation, and of transitional implant restoration. While patients felt their concerns were overestimated in relation to the implant surgery, they experienced greater morbidity than they expected in the healing phase. Recommendations are made for relatively small changes in care provision which might improve the overall patient experience. Partial dentate patients treated with a fixed transitional prosthesis experienced advantages more quickly than patients with an overdenture.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dentistry, Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Wafa A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Kashbour
authors.affiliation: Department of Dentistry, Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Nikki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rousseau
authors.affiliation: School of Dental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: J Mark
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Thomason
authors.affiliation: Department of Dentistry, Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Janice S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ellis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003757:Dental Implantation / Q000523:psychology*; D015921:Dental Implants / Q000523:psychology*; D019094:Dental Prosthesis, Implant-Supported / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D014945:Wound Healing
chemical_list: D015921:Dental Implants
keywords: conscious sedation; fixed transitional prosthesis; implant healing; implant surgery; overdenture; transitional implant-supported/retained prosthesis