Novel index for the evaluation of wound healing following erupted tooth extraction.

BACKGROUND: Understanding healing of the alveolar process is crucial for immediate implant, alveolar ridge preservation and guided bone regeneration procedures, and to evaluate it several different scales have been proposed; however, all have different characteristics and seem to miss a standardization allowing for an objective and dichotomous evaluation of the different aspects of wound healing. The objective of the present study is to propose and apply, in real clinical scenarios, a novel index for the objective evaluation of wound healing following erupted tooth extraction. METHODS: Healthy patients in need of a single tooth extraction were enrolled and re-examined at 7, 14 and 21 days after the extraction using the novel index proposed. For each follow-up, a score ranging from 0 to 10 based on dichotomous factors (0-1) was obtained. RESULTS: Ten patients were enrolled in the study, 7 females and 3 males; the scores obtained at 21 days were coherent with the clinical appearance of the wound, and an excellent wound healing was obtained for everyone, except for two patients. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed scale seems to accurately indicate the actual clinical status of the post-extraction wound and provide useful information on overall wound healing. Further validation of the scale is needed in future studies.