Incidence of neurosensory deficits and recovery after lower third molar surgery: a prospective clinical study of 4338 cases.

A prospective study of all lower third molar surgery performed in the outpatient extraction clinic of a teaching dental hospital was conducted from January 1998 through October 2005 to determine the incidence of subsequent neurosensory deficit due to inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) and lingual nerve (LN) injury, to examine possible contributing risk factors and to describe the pattern of recovery. 3595 patients were included (61% female, 39% male; age range, 14-82 years). Of the 4338 lower third molar extractions performed by various grades of operators, 0.35% developed IAN deficit and 0.69% developed LN deficit. Distoangular impaction was found to increase the risk of LN deficit significantly (p<0.001). Depth of impaction was related to the risk of IAN deficit (p<0.001). Undergraduates caused more LN deficits (p<0.001). Sex, age, raising of a lingual flap, protection of LN with a retractor, removal of distolingual cortex, tooth sectioning and difficulty in tooth elevation were not significantly related to IAN or LN injury. Postoperative recovery from IAN and LN deficits was noted most significantly at 3 and 6 months, respectively. By the end of the follow-up period, 67% of IAN deficits and 72% of LN deficits had recovered completely.

A comparison of post-operative complications following wisdom tooth surgery performed with sterile or clean gloves.

This randomised prospective study aimed at evaluating possible differences in the post-operative complication rate following lower wisdom tooth surgery performed with either sterile or clean surgical gloves. The microbiological profiles of the tooth sockets and glove surfaces were also evaluated and compared. A total of 275 ASA I, non-smoking and non-drinking patients consented to be randomly assigned into two groups for lower wisdom tooth surgery, performed by operators wearing either sterile or clean gloves. All the patients returned for a post-operative assessment visit one week later. An additional 40 patients were recruited and randomised into the sterile glove group (n = 20) or the clean glove group (n = 20) for the microbiology study. Specimens were taken from the glove surfaces and the post-operative socket wounds during wisdom tooth surgery. This clinical trial showed no significant difference between the sterile and clean glove groups in the incidence of acute inflammation, acute infection and dry sockets in the wounds. No single peri-operative factor had a statistically significant effect on post-operative pain intensity. Most of the bacterial isolates from the clean gloves were Gram-positive cocci or spore-forming bacilli. The total number of colony forming units and the variety of bacterial isolates from the socket wounds in the sterile and clean glove groups were similar. The study concluded that there was no advantage in using sterile surgical gloves rather than clean gloves to minimize post-operative complications in wisdom tooth surgery. There was also no apparent relationship between the bacteria contaminating the clean glove surfaces and those isolated from the socket wounds.

An evaluation of complications following dental extractions using either sterile or clean gloves.

This randomized prospective study aims to evaluate any differences in the postoperative infection rate from dental extraction using either sterile or clean surgical gloves and to determine any predisposing factors that may complicate socket healing. A total of 609 patients were randomly assigned to two groups, with the operators wearing either sterile or clean gloves in performing forcep extractions. 551 patients, who had 811 extractions performed, returned for the postoperative assessment visit. There was no difference in the incidence of an acutely inflamed socket, acutely infected socket and dry socket and also no significant predisposing factors found between the sterile and clean glove groups. The pre-operative diagnosis of caries, periodontal disease or retained root had a higher tendency of producing an acute-inflamed socket, whereas an acutely infected socket only developed in the cases of retained root. On the pain intensity level, an acutely inflamed socket caused mild to moderate pain, on acutely infected socket caused moderate to severe pain; and a dry socket caused severe pain in the majority of cases. The study concluded that the use of sterile surgical gloves does not offer an advantage over clean gloves in minimizing socket inflammation, infection, as well as a dry socket following dental extraction.