Prospective Study of the Development of Alveolar Osteitis after 3rd Molar Impacted Teeth Extraction in Randomly Selected Patients

Alveolar Osteitis is the most common post-surgical complication following extraction of impacted 3rd molar teeth. Various risk factors have been mentioned for this complication including gender, age, and amount of trauma during extraction, difficulty of surgery, inappropriate irrigation, infection, smoking, and oral contraceptive use. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the incidence of alveolar osteitis among patients who had undergone surgical removal of impacted third mandibular and maxillary molars in Oral and Maxillofacial Department of Khyber College of Dentistry, Peshawar, Pakistan and also to identify the background risk factors in terms of age of the patient and experience of the operating dentists. A total of 1026 patients with a total of 1345 extractions formed the study group. Extractions to remove impacted third mandibular and maxillary molar teeth from 2006 to 2007 were included in this study. A questionnaire was designed in which the inclusion criteria age, gender, site of extraction, smoking and experience of the dentist while in exclusion criteria oral contraceptive use, menstrual cycle phase, systemic disorders, and use of antibiotics prior to surgery were included respectively. The incidence of Alveolar Osteitis was 12.07% as a whole in both the genders, whereas 16.95 % alveolar osteitis developed in mandible and 7.34% in maxillary third molars extractions. However, incidence of Alveolar osteitis was significantly relevant to the patient’s age, as well as the experience of the dentist in the extractions of impacted third molars. Incidence of alveolar osteitis was higher where extractions were performed by the less experienced dentists due to the more traumas.