An assessment of patientsʹ attitudes to day-case general anaesthesia for removal of mandibular third molars

Day-case surgery is used extensively in many hospital departments including departments of oral surgery. In this study, the preoperative attitudes of 170 patients to, and postoperative satisfaction with, surgical removal of third molar teeth under general anaesthesia as day cases were evaluated. A 69% response to the questionnaire (n = 110) indicated that 102 (96%) of the 106 that had been satisfactorily completed were satisfied with the prospect of afternoon, day-case removal of their third molar teeth, and 96 (91%) remained satisfied postoperatively. Only two patients did not like the idea beforehand and had their opinions confirmed. Patientsʹ comments included satisfaction with the support they received (n = 29) and with pain control (n = 5) and amount of information given (n = 5). However, five complained of the long wait and two who were last on the list thought that they should have been kept in overnight.