Wisdom Teeth

Risk Factors for Delayed Infection After Wisdom Teeth Surgery

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An interesting article titled “Risk Factors for Delayed-Onset Infection after Mandibular Wisdom Tooth Extractions” written by A.M. Smith et al., appeared in Healthcare in 2023. The article investigated the risk factors for delayed-onset infection (DOI) after lower wisdom teeth extractions. Delayed-onset infection (DOI) is a potential complication of wisdom tooth extraction that occurs one to four weeks after surgery. Even with precautions, such the use of antibiotics and not smoking and following good oral hygiene after surgery delayed-onset infection can occur with a reported incidence from 0.5% to 1.8%. Prior studies have shown that the depth and the tilt of the tooth axis of the lower wisdom tooth are risk factors for local delayed-onset infection and the development of delayed-onset infection is related to the space distal to the second molar. The authors of the current study sought to identify … Read more

Kinesio Taping to Help with Complications after Wisdom Teeth Surgery

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An interesting article titled “Kinesio Taping as an Adjunct Therapy in Postoperative Care after Extraction of Impacted Third Lower Molars—A Randomized Pilot Study” appears in the Journal of Clinical Medicine written by Piotr Pławecki and et. al. (2023, 12, 2694). The article seeks to study the effectiveness of kinesio taping when compared with the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for treating complications after extraction of an impacted lower wisdom tooth. In the article the researchers divided 30 participants into two groups: 15 of the participants had tape applied after wisdom tooth extraction while the other 15 did not. Both groups were told to take 100mg of Ketoprofenum (a NSAID). Patients in the study had a lower impacted wisdom tooth extracted for the following reasons: 1) patients without comorbidities, 2) patients with indications for surgery to remove the impacted lower … Read more

Cinematic rendering to visualize teeth segmentation

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An interesting article titled “Cinematic rendering to improve visualization of supplementary and ectopic teeth using CT datasets” written by Ines Willershausen and et. al. appears in Dentomaxillofacial Radiology in 2023 (no. 51, 20230058). The article discusses cinematic rendering (CR) which is a visualization technique that uses physically based volume rendering to create photorealistic images from Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data. Specifically the article attempts to tailor pre-existing CR reconstruction parameters for use in dental imaging to create 3D visualization of ectopic, impacted, and supplementary teeth. This image is from Ines Willershausen and et. al., “Cinematic rendering to improve visualization of supplementary and ectopic teeth using CT datasets,” Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, 2023, no. 51, 20230058 and has a Creative Commons license. 7-year-old girl with a horizontally impacted canine (a) A panoramic radiograph. (b) Semi-transparent reconstruction parameters are utilized to … Read more

Bilateral Inverted and Impacted Wisdom Teeth

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An interesting article titled “Bilateral Inverted and Impacted Mandibular Third Molars: A Rare Case Report” written by Yara Mohamed Talib and et. al appears in Cureus on March 23, 2023 (vol. 15, no. 3, e36573. ). The article discussed two cases of inverted and impacted lower wisdom teeth that is very rare and very few cases have been reported in literature. In the article discussion is made of an impacted wisdom tooth that occurs when the tooth is unable to erupt normally because of a lack of room or a blockage from eruption. When a tooth is in a buccolingual position it is also noted as an inverted impaction. In the article two cases of bilateral impacted lower wisdom tooth were reported along with the radiographs. In the first case a 50 year old woman from Jordan presentned with persistent bleeding … Read more

Is it time to ditch the Doctor of Dental Surgery degree?

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An interesting article titled “Why 2 dental degrees?: Time for unification of degrees and oral health care providers” written by Donald B. Giddon and William V. Giannobile appears in the March 21, 2023 Journal of the American Dental Association. The article calls into question why dentistry is the only major health care profession that has two equivalent degrees: the Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD) degree and the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree. In the article discussion is made of how there is no useful purpose to have two different degrees in dentistry. The authors state that this causes confusion among patients, dentists, and other health care professionals. The authors believe that dentistry should have a single degree, the doctor of dental medicine, which is more accurate to what occurs in dentistry today. The authors say that there are no … Read more