The potential advantages of day surgery include:
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Patient benefits: Day surgery results in reduced waiting time and shortened hospital stay, leading to reduced risk of nosocomial infections, less interference with daily life activities, and the possibility of choosing from among various treatment alternatives.
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Reduced costs: Day case surgery is more cost-effective than surgery with patient hospitalization. Savings in services are obtained, although the actual surgical costs are very similar in both modalities.
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Improved quality patient care: Day case surgery can be performed with the same or even greater health care quality than surgery involving patient hospitalization. Previous studies showed that day surgery leads to better results than surgery with hospitalization, with fewer and less serious postoperative complications and a lower readmission rate.
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Shortened waiting lists: The need for waiting lists is a complex phenomenon that cannot always be solved by increasing available health care resources [3].
Records of 10,750 patients treated in the oral ambulatory operation room were examined in this study. Surgically treated patients in a study by Cabov et al. had an age range of 5–88 years, with a median age of 37 years for men and 31 for women. The numbers in the present study did not differ significantly from other reports. Our patients had a similar age range, although women had a mean age of 37.
Syed et al. showed that in both males and females, impacted third molars were more prevalent in the mandibular arch than in the maxilla (49.5% vs. 48.62%). In that study, the male-to-female ratio for impacted third molars was 604: 109 (5.54: 1; p = 0.707). In our study, this surgery was also more common in the mandibular arch (63.16%), and the male-to-female ratio for the impacted third molar operation was 2060: 3762 (49.93, 56.79; p = 0.0001). According to Syed et al., the 20–25-year age group showed the highest prevalence of third molar impaction (64.5%), and the frequency decreased with increasing age. Similarly, in our study, the 21–30-year age group most commonly underwent this procedure, with 3304 patients (60.75%). In other studies, as in ours, the prevalence of impacted third molars was much higher in the mandibular than in the maxillary arch (49.4% vs. 18.4%) [4].
In the day surgery, the most common oral surgery routine is the extraction of the third molar. In a literature review performed by Ruiz-Mirete and Gay-Escoda, the lower thirds of the mandible were the most commonly impacted teeth [3]. Surgical removal of impacted teeth is most common procedure for several reasons:
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Reducing in the caries index implies fewer extractions of non-impacted teeth. This may partly explain the greater extraction of impacted teeth, including third molars.
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The increase in demand for orthodontic treatment has, in turn, increased the number of impacted teeth operations (extraction or fenestration of permanent upper canines) or the extraction of other permanent teeth, such as premolars.
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The number of panoramic radiography devices have increased in the last 25 years. This additional radiographic technique allows for early detection of impacted teeth as well as control of eruption turnover and identification of dental and/or maxillary pathology requiring surgery [3].
In our study, more women than men underwent surgery, in accordance with previous findings. This could reflect increased prevalence of caries among women. In addition, this may be related to women’s increased interest in aesthetics and health care. Women and men had more operations for impacted wisdom tooth and implants in other countries A study in North India also found that women had more surgeries for impacted teeth more than men [5]. In our study, the number of operations for impacted wisdom teeth was 2060 (49.93%) in men and 3762 (56.79%) in women In Ontario, Canada, the most common day surgery procedure was extractions. In the Dental Clinic of the University of Barcelona, 15.34% of oral surgery treatments were performed on patients younger than 18 years of age. In our study, the number of young patients was significantly lower (7.79%) because most younger patients were scheduled for surgery under general anaesthesia and were therefore not included in this survey. General anaesthesia represents a risk factor for bacteremia following dental exrtractions (BDE), increasing its prevalence and duration [6]. On the other hand, patients subjected to ambulatory surgery should have a very low risk of serious complications, as they are selected according to their general condition (i.e., the absence of serious systemic diseases) [3].