Original Research Article DOI: 10.18231/2395-6194.2017.0039 Journal of Oral Medicine, Oral Surgery, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology, 2017; 3(3):164-168 164 Assessment of complications occurring after third molar removal: A retrospective study Khemraj Agarwal 1 , Hemanth Kumar HR 2,* , Rakesh Sharma 3 , Chandrakala TP 4 1 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Triveni Institute of Dental Sciences & Research Centre, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, 2 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Dentistry, Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences, Karwar, 3 Clinician, Dept. of Oral Medicine & Radiology, Orocare, Bangalore, 4 Dental Health Officer, Dept. of Community Health Centre, Bellur *Corresponding Author: Email: dr_hemanth82@yahoo.com, kr7514915@gmail.com Abstract Introduction: Removal of third molar is the most frequently performed procedure associated with a wide array of complications. The most commonly encountered complications are pain, paresthesia, trismus, swelling and mandibular fractures. The aim of present study was to evaluate and estimate the prevalence of complication associated with wisdom tooth removal and its association with age. Materials and Method: This study was conducted in the Triveni Institute of Dental Sciences, Hospital & Research Centre, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. All the surgical removal of third molars which were performed in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery during 1 year period from April 2016 - March 2017 were retrospectively analysed and included in the study. Presence of post operative complications like pain (more than 3 days), paresthesia, mandibular fracture, Alveolar osteitis (dry socket), bleeding, trismus or edema along with demographic features and the type of impaction were noted. The data was arranged in a tabulated form and analyzed using SPSS software. The variables were analyzed and P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Result: There were 117 males and 113 females who underwent transalveolar extraction of third molar. The mean age of females was 47.21+/- 12.2 years and males were 48.32 +/- 11.5 years. In our study pain was the most commonly encountered complication, seen in 57.4% of the subjects. Pain was followed by swelling which was seen in 42.2% of the subjects. Trismus ranked third, seen in 23.2% of subjects. There was a significant difference in pain levels amongst the three age groups in which pain most frequently seen in less than years of age 20 (21.6%) and least frequently seen amongst 20-40 years of age(15.2%). Conclusion: Pain was the most common complication followed by swelling and Trismus. Keywords: Pain, Paresthesia, Swelling, Trismus, Wisdom Introduction Third molar removal is one of the most routinely performed procedures by Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon and one of the most feared dental procedures. Good planning and skills, during preoperative diagnosis intraoperative treatment and postoperative management is required. (1) Various factors such as patient’s age, surgical technique, habits like smoking or drinking alcohol, gender, position of tooth etc influence the type of complication. (2) Complication can range from minor to severe discomfort that can lead to permanent damage or sometimes even require hospitalization. (3) Complications associated with surgical removal of third molar are alveolitis, dry socket, infection, paresthesia of the inferior alveolar nerve, haemorrhage, persistent pain, swelling and edema. Some of the less common complications are trismus, iatrogenic damage to adjacent tooth, temperomandibular joint injury and iatrogenic mandibular fracture. (4,5,6) Age of patient and the position of the tooth most directly affect the complication rate. (7) Some author’s have shown mesioangular and distoangular impactions have double the chances of complication than any other tooth position. (8) According to Mercier et al (9) and Tetsch et al, (10) the chances of intraoperative and postoperative complications are three times more in mandible compared to maxilla this is due the fact that poor blood circulation, more retention of saliva and food particles leading to difficulty in maintaining oral hygiene in mandible. It has also been observed that as the age advances the incidence of complication also increases, this may be due to increase in bone density and complete root formation therefore more abnormality in root curvature leading to difficulty in extraction. (11) The most commonly encountered complications are pain, paresthesia, trismus, swelling and mandibular fracture. (12-14) The aim of this study was to evaluate and estimate the incidence of complication associated with removal of impacted third molar in Bilaspur area. Materials and Method This study was conducted in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Triveni Institute of Dental Sciences & Research Center, Bilaspur. All the cases of surgical removal of third molar which were performed in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery during a period of 1 year from April 2016 - March 2017 were retrospectively analysed and included in the study, 310 cases of surgical removal of mandibular third molar were included. All the data from the patient’s document were reviewed and sorted as per the variables included in the study.