Study on the Relationship between Patients' Pain Perception and Clinical Communication Skills during Impacted Wisdom Tooth Extraction

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jmpe.202518404

Author(s)

Jie Lai*

Affiliation(s)

Department of Stomatology, The Eighth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China *Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study aims to explore the correlation between clinicians' clinical communication skills and patients' pain perception during impacted wisdom tooth extraction, identify key communication dimensions affecting pain perception, and provide evidence for optimizing clinical communication strategies to alleviate patients' perioperative pain. A cross-sectional study design was adopted, and patients who underwent impacted wisdom tooth extraction in the oral and maxillofacial surgery departments of multiple tertiary hospitals were selected as research subjects. The sample size was determined through power analysis, with a minimum of 320 cases calculated to detect a moderate correlation (r=0.3) between communication skills and pain perception (α=0.05, power=0.9), and the final sample was expanded to 380 to account for potential invalid data. Two standardized scales were used: the Clinical Communication Skills Assessment Scale for Oral Surgeons (including 4 dimensions: information provision, emotional support, decision-making collaboration, and response timeliness, scored on a 5-point Likert scale) and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain perception (scored 0-10, with higher scores indicating stronger pain). Before formal data collection, the communication skills scale was validated, showing a Cronbach's α coefficient of 0.89 and a content validity index (CVI) of 0.92, meeting academic standards. Data were collected by trained research assistants: during the perioperative period (1 hour before surgery, during surgery, and 24 hours after surgery), patients completed the VAS to assess pain intensity, and after surgery, they rated the clinician's communication skills using the assessment scale. Collected data were analyzed with SPSS 26.0, including descriptive statistics (to describe communication skill scores and pain perception levels), Pearson correlation analysis (to test the correlation between communication skills and pain perception), and multiple linear regression analysis (to identify key communication dimensions influencing pain perception). A total of 362 valid samples were obtained (effective response rate 95.26%). The results showed that the average score of clinicians' clinical communication skills was (4.02±0.58) points, and the average VAS score of patients' perioperative pain was (3.86±1.72) points. Pearson correlation analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between total communication skill scores and patients' pain perception (r=-0.418, P<0.01). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that emotional support (β=-0.294, P<0.01) and information provision (β=-0.226, P<0.01) were the key communication dimensions affecting patients' pain perception, while decision-making collaboration and response timeliness had no significant predictive effect (P>0.05). This study confirms that improved clinical communication skills of clinicians, especially in emotional support and information provision, can effectively reduce patients' pain perception during impacted wisdom tooth extraction.

Keywords

Impacted Wisdom Tooth Extraction; Pain Perception; Clinical Communication Skills; Visual Analog Scale (VAS); Cross-Sectional Study

References

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