Prevalence of Impacted Teeth: Study of 500 Patients

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of different pattern of impacted teeth. Materials & Method: A retrospective study of the digital orthopantomograms of 500 patients from Dept of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Rajarajeswari Dental College & Hospital, Bangalore was carried out. The investigation was done to relate the impaction to the angulation of tooth, age, and sex. Result: Panoramic radiographs of 500 patients aged 18 to 35 years were examined. The prevalence of teeth impaction was 33.6% among this age distribution. Two hundred twenty four impacted tooth were found. Mandibular right third molars were the most commonly encountered impactions 67 (29%). The distal angulations was the most common pattern of impaction in case of mandibular whereas mesio-angular was the common variant of maxillary third molar. Incidence of impaction is more common to 22 to 26 year age (42.8%). Conclusion: In our study impaction was more commonly seen in younger population. The mandibular third molars were the most frequently impacted in distoangular orientation whereas maxillary third molar were mesioangular.