Evaluation of outcome variables
postoperative pain, swelling, Postoperative pain, pain, trismus
TRISMUS
The main outcome variables were postoperative pain, swelling, trismus and level of surgical wound healing. All outcome variables were clinically and prospectively evaluated during the study by a blinded and previously trained examiner.Postoperative pain was measured using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) ranging from 0 (absence of pain) to 10 (severe pain). Subjects were instructed to measure pain according to VAS at 30 minutes, 2h, 4h, 6h, 8h, 12h, 16h, 24h, 48h and 72h of postoperative period. Additionally, the total number of analgesic tablets consumed up to the first 72h postoperative was also recorded.Swelling and trismus and the measurements were performed prior to the surgical procedure (baseline) and at 72h and 7 days after surgery. Swelling was evaluated by measuring the distance between reference points on the participant’s face with a tape measure. Three facial measures were obtained from each patient: 1) The distance from angle of the mandible to the external cantus of the eye; 2) The distance from the tragus to labial commissure; and 3) The distance from the tragus to the chin. The sum of the three measures was computed and the swelling was considered the variation between the preoperative baseline and the postoperative measures. The illustration of reference points is shown in 