Prevalence and characteristics of impacted permanent molars in a Turkish subpopulation

Abstract

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of impacted permanent molars in a Turkish subpopulation. Materials and Methods: A total of 45816 panoramic radiographs of patients aged more than 13 years were examined retrospectively to determine the presence, number, location, position, and related complications. The patients′ age and sex were noted. During statistical analysis, descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations, Chi-square test, and Fisher′s exact were used. The P value was set at 0.05. Results: The prevalence of impacted permanent molars was found to be 0.18% in this population. In total, 109 impacted first/second molars were observed in 83 patients, 18 cases had two or more impacted permanent molars. Impacted first/second molars were observed significantly more frequently in male patients than in female patients (P 0.05). According to the position of the impacted permanent molars, 58 were detected as vertical direction, 28 were impacted as mesioangular, 12 were impacted as distoangular, 9 were impacted as horizontal, and 2 were impacted as buccolingual direction. In this study, cystic changes related to impacted teeth were observed in 14 (12.9%) cases and root resorption, carious lesion of the neighboring teeth were uncommon, our findings showed that majority of impacted first/second molars were found to be asymptomatic. Conclusions: Early diagnosis and treatment of eruption disturbances may avoid impaction in complicated orthodontic treatment.

Keywords

• Impacted first molar
• impacted second molar
• prevalence