Study on Oral Dietary and Nutritional Intake after Orthognathic Surgery

Abstract

To consider the diet and nutritional intake after surgery , th is study invest igated the status of the nutritional intake of patients who underwent orthognathic surgery and how they felt about the postsurgical diet using a questionnaire. Fourteen subjects (2 males and 12 females; average age 27.6 years) underwent orthognathic surgery at Oita Oka Hospital between November and the end of December 2017. The questionnaire had nine questions, including on the appearance of meals and so on. The patients were asked to fill in the questionnaire before being discharged. We recorded the dietary intake rate of meals provided for 3 days after surgery to calculate the amount of energy consumed and the nutrient adequacy based on the required amount of energy. This gave us an accurate picture of the dietary and nutritional intake situation. According to the questionnaire, 92% of patients said that the meals provided were easy or somewhat easy to eat. Regarding satisfaction with the diet, all patients answered that they were satisfied. However, regarding the appearance, 44% of the patients said that the meals provided were not very visually appealing, and 47% said the dietary amount was too much. The average amount of energy consumed for the 3 days after surgery was 705 kcal and the average nutrient adequacy was 35%. These results showed that the nutritional intake situation of patients who underwent orthognathic surgery was about three out of ten in terms of nutrient adequacy. Many patients felt the meals were easy to eat and were satisfied with the food currently offered by our department, but they felt that they had physical difficulties eating, and that the meal volume was large, which is considered to be a low nutrient adequacy.