| Popis: |
Background: The study evaluated compliance with warm saline rinse instruction, the factors militating against it and its association with postoperative complications after dental extractions. Materials and Methods: A prospective study of all consecutive patients 16 years and above who had dental extraction at the dental clinic of our institution over a 1-year period was undertaken. The patients were reviewed at day 3, 7, 11, 15, and 30 postextractions to evaluate for compliance with warm saline rinse instructions. The information obtained included sociodemographics, compliance, reasons for noncompliance, and complications. The collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 13. The results were presented as frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviations (SD), and cross tabulations as appropriate. Statistical significance was set at P Results: Of the 220 patients who met the inclusion criteria, male accounted for 127 (57.7%) while female were represented by 93 (42.3%) giving a male to female ratio of 1.4:1. The ages ranged from 18 to 73 years, mean (SD) 32.2 (9.84) years. Less than half (n = 103; 46.8%) of them complied fully with the instructions. The majority of the noncompliant subjects were able to gargle twice daily (n = 84; 71.8%) and the most frequent number days gargled was 5 days (n = 48; 41%). The most commonly observed reason for noncompliance was the participants' nature of work (n = 36; 30.8%). A total of 17 (7.7%) subjects developed alveolar osteitis and this was significantly more in the noncompliant subjects (χ2 = 9.09; P = 0.003). Those who gargled twice or thrice daily had significantly less alveolar osteitis compared to those that gargled at lower frequencies (χ2 = 23.88; P = 0.0001). Conclusion: Patients' nature of the occupation, educational activities, and too high a dosing frequency are some of the factors militating against compliance with warm saline rinse instructions. |
