Journal of Mashhad Dental School (Mar 2020)
Relationship between the Duration of Surgical Removal of Impacted Mandibular Third Molars and the Incidence of Dry Socket
Abstract
Introduction: Dry socket is one of the most common postoperative complications following the surgical extraction of the impacted third molar. In clinical observations, the tooth cavity is devoid of the blood clot and bone is completely exposed. The duration of surgery is one of the factors affecting the incidence of this lesion. Nonetheless, the assessment of the studies on the effect of increased length of surgical extraction of impacted third molars on the incidence of dry socket has not yielded accurate results. With this background in mind, the present study aimed to evaluate the correlation between the duration of surgical extraction of impacted third molars and the incidence of dry socket. Materials and Methods: The current study was conducted on 227 patients within the age range of 17-30 years old referring to the oral and maxillofacial surgery department of Mashhad Dental School. The impacted difficulty score was considered 4-8 based on the Peterson reference. The amount of pain and incidence of the dry socket was evaluated in 2, 4, and 7 days after surgery. Result: The mean pain scores in the second, fourth, and seventh days after the surgery were measured at 4.72±1.08, 1.57±1.26, and 0.29±1.11, respectively, which indicated a significant difference in the severity of pain in different times (PP=0.007). Moreover, the pain significantly increased on the second and seventh days after surgery with increasing the duration of surgery. Furthermore, with increasing the duration of surgery, the amount of pain increased significantly on the second and seventh days after surgery. However, it increased only to a very small amount on the fourth day and its correlation was not significant Conclusion: As evidenced by the obtained results, the duration of the impacted mandibular third molar operation is associated with an increased risk of alveolar osteitis.
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