ROSEMONT, Illinois – Third molar surgery (wisdom tooth extraction) in patients 25 years of age and older has a very low incidence of complications and minimal impact on quality of life, according to the results of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) Age-Related Third Molar Study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

The national study of 3,700 patients and 8,300 third molars extracted by 63 oral and maxillofacial surgeons (OMSs) between January and December 2001 shows that "the removal of third molars in an adult patient population is a safe surgical procedure with minimal morbidity, no mortality and no long-term negative impact on the patient's quality of life," according to principal author Richard H. Haug, DDS, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery and executive associate dean at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry in Lexington.

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Almost one third of patients (31.2% to 34.1%) had only minimal inconvenience associated with their surgery and neither missed work nor curtailed their normal activities. Intraoperative complications occurred with a frequency of less than 1%. None of the patients required a blood transfusion, there were no deaths, and none of the patients experienced problems with their airways after surgery, although the frequency of airway compromise during surgery was 0.5%.

p>p>SOURCE: American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons [  Printer-friendly page ]