Predicting Pain After Tooth Extraction With Easy‐to‐Collect Preoperative Variables

OBJECTIVES: To examine the determinants of acute pain following tooth extraction, within a set of factors belonging to different domains: biometry, dental nosology and anatomy, psychology toward pain and surgery, and surgical procedure. METHODS: Participants were recruited in two centres in France and Lebanon. A 'simple extraction' (161 patients) and a 'wisdom teeth/tooth' group (at least mandibular) (115 patients) were studied separately. Postoperative pain and total analgesic drug intake (over 5 days) were both expressed as a composite score. Both scores were ranked within each surgery group, and their sum was the primary outcome, which was analysed by multivariable linear mixed models after a factor selection. RESULTS: In the simple extraction group, the primary outcome was predicted positively by preoperative fearfulness (defined by a composite of various phobias) and preoperative dental pain, and negatively by age (≥ 60) and a previous tooth extraction. In the wisdom teeth/tooth group, it was predicted positively by preoperative fearfulness and pain catastrophising, and negatively by a local inflammatory context and preoperative dental pain. CONCLUSIONS: Whereas postoperative pain was constantly favoured by psychological distress, age and other dental factors had different influences on postoperative pain depending on the type of extraction. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05405088.