Measurement of Lingual Cortical Plate Thickness and Lingual Position of Lower Third Molar Roots Using Cone Beam Computed Tomography

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to determine the potential risk of tooth/root displacement into the soft tissue during the third molar surgery. While performing third molar surgeries, one of the many complications is displacement of the tooth into the soft tissues. This can be due perforation of the lingual cortical bone during surgery or the position of the tooth root which may be close to the lingual bone. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective samples of 251 patients were collected who had undergone cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) for various reasons. Measurements were performed independently and recorded twice by one surgeon and one radiologist; the average of the two measurements was calculated and evaluated using MyRay CBCT. RESULTS: On the right and the left side, the average distances in males for AL were 3.31 and 2.96 mm, respectively, whereas in females was found to be 3.98 and 3.56 mm which were statistically significant. On the right and left side, the average distances in males for RL were 2.03 and 1.78 mm, respectively, whereas in females, it was 2.41 and 1.99 mm, respectively, with the significant P value in the right side. CONCLUSION: Despite the sample size being of 251 patients, a large number of root of the third molar (95.62%) were not in contact with lingual cortical bone, but still practitioner should be careful during surgery as there might be the risk for displacement of the tooth. The images used were of impacted molar used in this study and these teeth were not subjected to surgery. Hence, the results can be only correlated theoretically, i.e., there would be a risk of displacement of the tooth during extraction.