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

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. 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. 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. 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.