Acute Pericoronitis And The Position Of The Mandibular Third Molar In Nigerians

This study evaluates the relationship of acute pericoronitis to the position of the mandibular third molar in Nigerians. One hundred and thirty-two cases of acute pericoronitis seen over a period of 6 months at the state Dental Centre, Kaduna were studied. The tooth with the highest risk for acute pericoronitis was found to be vertically positioned third molar (57.4%); followed respectively by distoangular (25.9%) and mesioangular (14.8%) impactions. The height of such a tooth in relation to the second molar was found to correlate with deep pocket distal to the tooth (P< 0.05). The observation in this study showed that most of the teeth of the vertically impacted group were either at the same occlusal level or slightly above. A change in the classification of vertical impaction into \'false\' and \'true\' vertical impactions is suggested. Keywords: Acute-pericoronitis, impaction-position, frequency Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research Vol. 5 (1&2) 2007: pp. 41-46