Study on post‐operative complications after outpatient treatments

Aim This study analyses the post-operative telephone contacts and complications after minor surgery. Material and methods In a prospective study design, all patients who underwent oral surgery in the outpatient clinic were included, and post-operative telephone contacts and complications were recorded. The surgical interventions were divided into four groups: removal of third molars, apicectomies, placement of implants and removal of teeth other than third molars. The following characteristics were registered for each patient: gender, age, smoking habit, medical status, duration of the surgery, location of the interventions (upper or lower jaw), surgical difficulty classification and the number of teeth extracted. Results In total, 1080 patients were included: 526 third molar extractions, 122 apicectomies, 123 implants and 309 extractions of other teeth. There were significantly more post-operative telephone contacts and complications associated with longer surgeries (P = 0.025 and 0.014), treatment in the mandible (P = 0.024 and 0.041) and surgical complexity of third molar extractions (P = 0.013 and 0.005). Conclusions Overall, increasing age, gender, medical status and smoking habit were not identified as risk factors. In conclusion, there were significantly more telephone calls and post-operative complications associated with difficult mandibular third molar extractions that required longer surgical times.