surgery

Looking at the Timing of Removal of Wisdom Teeth and It’s Effect on Complications

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An interesting study by M. Anthony Pogrel titled “What Is the Effect of Timing of Removal on the Incidence and Severity of Complications?” appears in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 70, issue 9, supplement 1, pages S37-S40, 2012. The author sets out to explore if younger patients (less than 25 years) have a decreased risk for postoperative complications than older patients.  The author begins by describing three studies in the literature that have shown that complications associated with wisdom teeth removal increase after 25 years of age. I have also mentioned several of these studies over at http://www.teethremoval.com/wisdomteeth.html. The author then goes on to discuss that recovery for patients of wisdom teeth surgery older than 21 may be delayed after extraction (by two studies). The author then discusses that mandibular fracture and tuberosity fracture may occur after … Read more

Removing Wisdom Teeth May Improve The Periodontal Health of Remaining Teeth

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An interesting article titled “Removal of Symptomatic Third Molars May Improve Periodontal Status of Remaining Dentition,” by Carolyn Dicus-Brookes and et al. appears in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (vol. 71, pp. 1639-1646, 2013). The article seeks to explore the impact of removing wisdom teeth on the periodontal status of adjacent second molars and other teeth located in the mouth specifically for patients who have mild symptoms of pericoronitis. As discussed recently over at Upcoming Changes to JOMS and AAOMS in 2014, select articles in JOMS will have press releases written by AAOMS staff to accompany them. This is one of those articles so that feature appears to have already been rolled out. To get an idea of what the press release entails I will briefly describe it. It is very short (less than 10 sentences) and fits … Read more

Wisdom Teeth Caries Experience and Periodontal Pathology in Young Patients

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An interesting article explored the prevalence of caries experience and periodontal pathology on asymptomatic wisdom teeth in young adults appears in a 2012 issue of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery by Rachel N. Garaas and et al. titled “Prevalence of third molars with caries or periodontal pathology in young adults” (J Oral Maxillofac Surg. vol. 70, pages 507-513, 2012). The article seeks to help inform young adults who are seeking advice about the extraction or retention of wisdom teeth about if these teeth can remain symptom free or not. The study includes 409 patients with an average age of 25. The authors define a periodontal probing depth of at least 4 mm as indicative of periodontal inflammatory disease. The authors found that a periodontal probing depth of at least 4 mm was detected more often on a mandibular … Read more

Updates on Anesthesia Provided by Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

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Recently, it has come to my attention that the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) has released a new white paper titled “Office-Based Anesthesia Provided by the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon,” in 2013, located over at http://www.aaoms.org/docs/papers/advocacy_office_based_anesthesia.pdf. This data contains some important data from the OMS National Insurance Company (OMSNIC) which to my knowledge had been previously closed. This data is Anesthesia Morbidity and Mortality Data from 2000 to 2010  for a total of 29,975,459 in-office anesthetics (conscious sedation, deep sedation and general anesthesia) provided by oral and maxillofacial surgeons in their offices. It was found from this data that the ratio of office fatalities/brain damage per anesthetics administered is 1 to 365,534.  I had long wondered what this data showed as I have previously looked at numerous studies attempting to determine how many deaths occur when anesthesia … Read more

Unsafe Injection Practices Plaque U.S. Outpatient Facilities

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In a post last year I discussed how an Oral Surgeon Investigated for Reusing Needles and Syringes. In a recent article in JAMA titled “Unsafe Injection Practices Plague US Outpatient Facilities, Harm Patients,” Bridget M. Kuehn discusses many problems with injection practices (December 26, 2012,Vol 308, No. 24, pp. 2551-2552). She describes how hepatitis C virus was contracted by 2 patients who received an epidural injection from a pain management clinic. “During the visit, they observed the physician who treated both patients withdrawing medication from a multiple-dose vial with a previously used syringe topped with a new needle, a breach of safe injection practices that may have contaminated the vial and exposed subsequent patients to potential blood-borne infections.” This led to 8,000 patients who were treated at the clinic to be tested and 8 additional cases of hepatis C to … Read more