Influence of operator’s professional experience in the postoperative course after surgical extrac-tion of the impacted lower third molar: A pilot study

Abstract

Background Third molars are present in 96.6% of humans, although they do not always erupt completely. Between 9.5% and 73% of them remain impacted. Surgical removal of impacted third molars is the most common practice in oral and maxillofacial surgery. This procedure results in traumatism and, consequently, the postoperative phase will involve symptomatology. It is uncommon to find studies that directly relate postoperative symptomatology and the operator’s experience. The aim of this study was to determine the differences regarding postoperative symp-tomatology in patients undergoing the bilateral extraction of lower impacted third molars and according to the operator’s experience. Material and Methods A prospective cohort double-blind study was conducted in 50 healthy patients (100 molar extractions) to whom both lower third molars were removed by two dentists with different degree of professional experience. The extractions were randomly assigned with a split–mouth design. If an operator extracted the lower third molar on one side, the other operator extracted the contralateral one. The variables studied after four days of postoperative period were Pain (EVA scale), Inflammation and Trismus, in addition to intraoperative time and local anesthesia administered. Results Statistically significant differences were detected in the time of intervention and in trismus, since the most experienced operator always needed less time and caused higher degree of trismus. However, this does not entail more inflammation or pain in patients, so there are no relevant differences between operators with more or less experience ( p >0.05). Conclusions The postoperative period is more favorable for the most experienced operator, although the results do not vary in a relevant manner between them. Key words: Preemptive analgesia, dental extraction, cyclooxygenases, real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Radiographic Evaluation Factors That Influence the Decision of the Tooth Extraction Method

“…Most simple extraction cases had PA lesions compared to surgical extractions. Some surgical cases were also observed with radio-opaque or mixed lesions, which might be associated with mixed lesions or sound bone in the PA area and surgical extraction [ 30 ]. To compare the findings of the present study with other studies, there was a lack of relevant published studies; most of the studies discussed third molar extractions and the criteria regarding the position of the tooth and proximity to vital structures.…”