Do Wisdom Teeth Contribute to Systemic Inflammation?

An interesting article appears in the 2019 edition of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery titled “Do Third Molars Contribute to Systemic Inflammation? Results From a Population-Based Study From Northeast Germany,” written by Kindler et al. The article investigates whether having wisdom teeth present plays a role on serum levels of inflammatory parameters and inflammatory messenger peptide hormones. In the article the authors used a study population of 2,333 patients from the northeastern region of Germany (Study of Health in Pomerania- SHIP 2) and also a different cohort of 4,420 patients from the same the region of Germany (SHIP-Trend). The authors pooled the data into 6,753 patients and found 2,484 of these patients had data on wisdom teeth. From the 2,484 patients only 2,151 patients had data on at least one inflammatory marker. The authors found that impacted wisdom … Read more