Frequency of Distal Caries of 2nd Molar with Mesio-Angular Impaction in Subset of Karachi Population

Abstract

Background: The oral cavity has four 3rd molars, commonly termed wisdom teeth. These molars may erupt in an appropriate anatomical place and become functional, or they may erupt partly or non-functionally, in which case they are known to as impacted. Therefore, the study aimed to measure the frequency of distal caries of 2nd molars in the presence of mesio-angular impacted 3rd molars and its association with the other type of impactions among patients. Methods: It was a retrospective cross-sectional study done at the Oral Medicine and Diagnosis Department of Ziauddin University Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. The study comprised 201 radiographs of individuals aged 21 to 45 years, of both genders, who visited a dental OPD between 2017 and 2020 and had erupted 2nd molar teeth and impacted 3rd molar teeth in the same quadrant. Patients with inadequate diagnostic quality and distortion on their OPGs were excluded from the research. All collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25. Results: The frequency of distal caries of 2nd molars was observed to be 122 (60.7%). A total of 103 of the 201 subjects had mesio-angular impaction causing caries in the 2nd molars (84.4%). There was a statistically significant relationship between impaction type and distal caries of 2nd molars (p=0.001). The type of impaction also showed a significant association with gender (p=0.048). Conclusion: Higher frequency of distal caries of 2nd molars in the presence of mesio-angular impacted 3rd molars was observed. This was also significantly associated with the type of impaction (p<0.001) and gender (p=0.048). Keywords: Dental Caries, Third Molar, Wisdom Tooth.