Wisdom Teeth

Studies and Opinions on Opioids After Wisdom Teeth Removal

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Recently on this site there have been several posts regarding giving patients opioids after wisdom teeth removal. In the post Do Oral Surgeons Give Too Many Opioids for Wisdom Teeth Removal? a study by Resnick et al. appearing in the 2019 edition of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery was discussed (titled “Do Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Over-Prescribe Opioids After Extraction of Asymptomatic Third Molars?”). Recently some commentary in a letter to the editor appearing in the 2019 edition of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery has been provided titled “Opioid Prescription Following Third Molar Extractions,” written by Subramanian and Quek which questions the validity of the study by Resnick. In the article by Subramanian and Quek some very valid points are made. First, the article by Resnick only relied on voluntary reporting of opioid use and this … Read more

Proving a Person is Older than 18 Years Based on the Periodontal Space (Ligament) and Root Pulp of Lower Wisdom Teeth from Imaging

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Recently, four articles that have been published on this site regarding using wisdom teeth as seen in an image from either panoramic x-ray or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to estimate age: 1) forensic age estimation using wisdom teeth, 2) using panoramic x-rays of lower wisdom teeth to legally prove if someone is older than 18 years and 21 years, 3) Using lower wisdom teeth developmental stages determined from panoramic x-rays to calculate age, and 4) dental age estimation using MRI of wisdom teeth. From these studies discussed their appears to be a need to further explore using the so called Olze methods from Olze et al., “Evaluation of the radiographic visibility of the root pulp in the lower third molars for the purpose of forensic age estimation in living individuals,” in the International Journal of Legal Medicine, vol. 124, pp. 183–186, 2010, and Olze et al., “Assessment … Read more

Dental Age Estimation Using MRI of Wisdom Teeth

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Recently, three articles have been published on this site regarding using wisdom teeth to estimate age: 1) forensic age estimation using wisdom teeth, 2) using panoramic x-rays of lower wisdom teeth to legally prove if someone is older than 18 years and 21 years , and 3) Using lower wisdom teeth developmental stages determined from panoramic x-rays to calculate age. All such articles use panoramic x-rays of wisdom teeth in order to attempt to estimate the age of the person they came from. However, recently there has also been articles describing using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of wisdom teeth to predict age. One article is by Baumann et al. “Dental age estimation of living persons: Comparison of MRI with OPG,” Forensic Science International, vol. 253, pp. 76–80, 2015. Another article is by Guo et al. “Dental age estimation in living individuals using … Read more

Federal Legislation to Limit the Amount of Money Recoverable From Medical and Dental Lawsuits Harms Patients

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Wisdom teeth surgery is often performed in young adults in their late teenage years or twenties and results in up to 10% of all cases complications. Some of these complications can be life altering and either prolong for a long period of time or be permanent. Sometimes patients feel as if they have been wronged by their doctor and file a lawsuit. However, many might be surprised to know that a single liability insurance OMSNIC insures the vast majority (over 80%) of all oral and maxillofacial surgeons in the U.S. and that the vast majority (over 90%) of such lawsuits are found in favor of the oral and maxillofacial surgeons. As a result of this very few patients recover money after filling a lawsuit. To make matters worse many states in the U.S. including California and Texas have laws that … Read more

Using lower wisdom teeth developmental stages determined from panoramic x-rays to calculate age

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Recently, two articles have been published on this site regarding forensic age estimation using wisdom teeth and using panoramic x-rays of lower wisdom teeth to legally prove if someone is older than 18 years and 21 years. In the first study the age of a person was determined from wisdom teeth x-rays based on four stages of the emergence of a wisdom tooth using both upper and lower wisdom teeth. In the second study the age of a person was determined from wisdom teeth x-rays based on the presence and extension of periodontal space (periodontal ligament) and also the presence of root pulp of lower wisdom teeth based on four stages. In order to explore more precise predictions of the age of a person using wisdom teeth x-rays, a study was conducted using several radiological measurable findings in an article … Read more