Relationship between preoperative anxiety and postoperative satisfaction in dental implant surgery with intravenous conscious sedation.

PURPOSE To study if patient preoperative anxiety is related to age and gender and to compare preoperative anxiety with postoperative patient and surgeon satisfaction in dental implant surgery under intravenous conscious sedation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Dental implants were placed in 102 patients under local anesthesia and intravenous conscious sedation. The procedures were performed with or without dental extractions, and with or without bone regeneration. Anxiety was evaluated using Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale and levels of surgeon and patient satisfaction were evaluated on an adapted scale. RESULTS Low preoperative anxiety was observed in 27.8% of patients, moderate in 50%, and high in 22.2%. Mean value of anxiety was 9.8+/-3.7. The level of surgeon satisfaction was adequate in 87.8% of the surgeries; patients were awake and nervous in 4.4% of surgeries, and excessively sleepy, with little cooperation in 7.8% of surgeries. Regarding patient satisfaction, the procedure was comfortable for 23.3% of patients, neither comfortable nor uncomfortable for 28.9%, a slightly uncomfortable experience for 36.7%, and very uncomfortable for 10% of patients. Younger patients and women were observed to have more anxiety, the difference being statistically significant. Patients with higher preoperative anxiety expressed a lower level of satisfaction, with statistically significant differences. There was no significant relationship between preoperative patient anxiety and postoperative surgeon satisfaction. CONCLUSION Anxiety was higher in younger patients and women. In this study, a higher preoperative patient anxiety was associated with lower patient satisfaction, but had no influence on postoperative surgeon satisfaction.