Assessment of factors associated with surgical difficulty in impacted mandibular third molar extraction

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this prospective study was to investigate radiologic and clinical factors associated with increased difficulty in the removal of impacted mandibular third molars. We also aimed to form an index to measure the difficulty of removal of the impacted molars preoperatively.

Patients and methods: A total of 87 patients who required 90 surgical extractions of impacted mandibular third molars from November 2003 to May 2004 were involved in the study. Radiologic and clinical data were taken preoperatively. All extractions were performed under local anesthesia by a single operator. Surgical difficulty was measured by the total intervention time.

Results: Increased surgical difficulty was associated with increasing age and body mass index. It was also associated with the curvature of roots of the impacted tooth and the depth from point of elevation (P < .05).

Conclusion: Both clinical and radiologic variables are important in predicting surgical difficulty in impacted mandibular third molar extractions.