Is it Possible to Predict the Difficulty of Third–Molar Surgical Extraction?

Mario Vicente–Barrero; Maria Sacramento Bocanegra–Perez

Volume : III, Issue : IX, September - 2014

Is it Possible to Predict the Difficulty of Third–Molar Surgical Extraction?

Mario Vicente Barrero, Maria Sacramento Bocanegra Perez

Abstract :

The goal of this study was to identify a factor or a group of factors, which can be used in daily clinical practice to predict the difficulty of third–molar (M3) surgical extraction. Here we present a prospective cohort study conducted on 100 patients consecutively referred by their primary health care dentists. Six preoperative radiological variables were analyzed in order to identify which ones could be used for preoperative evaluation of surgical difficulty on the basis of surgical time (ST) and osteotomy time (OT). Statistical analysis showed that the M3 position relative to the anterior border of the ramus (ABR) and the Winter�s distance (WD) were enough for preoperative estimation of ST and OT. This finding renders evaluation of other parameters described in the literature unnecessary