Study of prevalence and pattern of impacted mandibular third molar in a tertiary care centre

Aim: To study the prevalence, pattern and postoperative complications of impacted third molars based on Pell and Gregory and Winter's classification. Methods: This retrospective study was undertaken on 300 patients in the Thoothukudi Government medical college hospital in the department of dental surgery. Patients diagnosed with impacted mandibular third molars and treated surgically under local anesthesia were included in the study. Patients with incompletely formed roots, absence of adjacent second molar were excluded. The data collected were analyzed by applying descriptive statistics. Results: The most common type of impaction was mesioangular (n=135, 45%) followed by vertical (n=100, 33.3%) and horizontal impaction (n=34, 11.3%).The majority of the cases were class II A (n=98, 32.6%), class I A (n=72, 24%), while there were minimal cases in class III B and III C. Conclusion: Recurrent pericoronitis was the most frequently reported reason for surgical removal of mandibular third molars. The postoperative infection rate was 3.6%, though the patient had undertaken antibiotics postoperatively. The use of corticosteroids can decrease the severity of postoperative sequelae in many patients.