Educational intervention in patients undergoing orthognathic surgery: Pilot study

Abstract

Objective: This study was to assess the feasibility of educational intervention nusing printed materials and the appropriateness of the instruments chosen to assess the efficacy of the intervention in patients undergoing orthognathic surgery.

Methods: Nonrandomized pilot study was conducted with eight patients. In the preoperative period, an educational intervention using printed material and the application of instruments for data collection was carried out; in the postoperative period, only data collection was carried out. Friedman, Wilcoxon, McNemar and Rasch’s statistical tests were applied in order to assess the variables and the instrument.

Results: Significant findings with respect to trait anxiety (p = .016), lower difficulty of patients to perform oral hygiene (p = .008), mild pain (p = .025), and moderate pain (p = .046). For the knowledge test, Rasch analysis showed that the model did not fit, since easy questions were stacked in the lower limit of the map, which showed the need to reformulate some questions.

Conclusions: The intervention was consistent, but it can only be confirmed as effective through a research with a control group. It was observed that the use of brochures could improve the management of the signs and symptoms experienced by the patients in the postoperative period.