Association of the Mandibular Third Molar Position to the Pericoronitis

Pericoronitis is inflammation of the soft tissues surrounding the crown of a partially erupted tooth.

To provide measurement of lower third molar angulation and determine relationship between mandibular third molar position and presence of pericoronitis.

We studied 104 patients with lower third molar pericoronitis with clinical manifestations and measurement of lower third molar angulation. The mean age of patients was 25.7 years (range 18–35 years).

In this study was used the following statistical analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient and Spearman's correlation coefficient (nonparametric version of the Pearson correlation coefficient) for measure of the linear correlation between two variables-pericoronitis and angulation of the lower third molars. The chi-square test was used to assesses case incidences. The level of significance was p<0.05. 36.04% of partially impacted mandibular third molars were mesioangular followed by the vertical (25.47%), horizontal (18.97%), distoangular (9.21%), buccal (5.42%) and lingual (3.79%) position. The lowest part of the mandibular third molars is located in the ramus of mandible (1.08%). The present study was found in relation to mesioangular, distoangular, vertical impaction and pericoronitis (p<0.05).

We conclude that the position of lower third molar may be able to be associated with presence of pericoronitis.