Effect of Surgery Difficulty According to Impaction Level on the Incidence of Alveolar Osteitis Following Mandibular Third Molar Surgery

One of the most common complications following impacted third molar surgery is alveolar osteitis (AO). Various variables affect the incidence of AO following impacted third molar extraction. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of surgery difficulty on the incidence of AO after impacted mandibular third molar surgery. Patients with the age range of 18-30 years old with at least one impacted mandibular third molar participated in the present study. In order to determine the difficulty of the surgery, the direction, depth of impaction, and relationship with ramus of the impacted third molar was evaluated on the panoramic radiograph according to the Pederson scale. Data were collected in SPSS version 11.5 software and analyzed using chisquare and t-test. 31 (20.8%) of the sockets developed AO within the first postoperative week. Higher difficulty level of the surgery was associated with significantly higher rate of AO (P-value < 0.05). Difficulty of the surgery and impaction level has significant effect on the rate of AO following impacted mandibular third molar surgery.