A study of special care dental patient preference toward choice of mask and visor use by dental clinicians.

Background: Do patients have a preference for the clinician's choice of face protection (visor or mask), and can this make a difference to the patient's feelings of anxiety?

Method: In a normative sample (n = 72) of patients from Special Care Dentistry, different combinations of face protection were studied to see whether the patients clearly preferred one type over another, and whether that was related to the levels of anxiety they suffered, based on the modified dental anxiety scale.

Results: The majority of patients, 68% had the visor only as their first choice of face protection. This was followed by 22% having the mask only as their first choice and 10% having the visor and mask combination as their first choice.

Postoperative ambulation in thoracic surgery patients: standard versus modern ambulation methods.

Aim: A single-subject study of two methods of postoperative ambulation of patients recovering from thoracic surgery.

Background: During the postoperative setting, patients are often burdened by their condition that reduces their ability to ambulate. This problem is compounded by the addition of devices that make walking more cumbersome.