PREDICTION OF VERTICAL IMPACTION OF LOWER WISDOM TOOTH ACCORDING ORTHOPANTOMOGRAPHY OF LOWER JAW
Authors: Hohol A.M. , Pankevych A.I. , Kolisnyk I.A. , Machulenko D.S. , Hohol Ya.A. 
Published: December 2021

Topic relevance. The dental surgeon often is left alone with the dilemma: to save or remove the third lower molars. The justification of indications for tooth extraction must have objective criteria. It should be noted that a patient with this problem does not always have the opportunity to receive comprehensive advice from an orthodontist. In view of this, the solution to this problem requires the search for radiological data, which are the most available today and would help to justify treatment tactics for preservation or removal of the tooth.

The conditions of tooth preservation in the dentition are most favorable with a slight medio-distal inclination and a vertical position of the third lower molars. However, this does not exclude the possibility of tooth impaction, which is often accompanied by periodic inflammatory phenomena in the tissues adjacent to the tooth and motivates both the patient and the dental surgeon to solve this problem.

The aim of our study was to research of radiographic indicators of orthopantomography of the mandible to predict the vertical retention of the third lower molars.

Material and methods of research. The platforms of Google Scholar, Research Gate and PubMed are used for research and analysis of the scientific literature on the application of objective criteria of mandibular orthopantomography data in the prediction of vertical impaction of the third lower molars.

Impaction of mandibular molars is the result of a number of factors, including heredity, racial characteristics, muscle function, the nature of the food consumed, insufficient growth of the mandible, the size of the retromolar space. The accurately determination the positions of the molars and the size of the retromolar space of the mandible by available methods of X-ray diagnosis (the most common of which is the method of orthopantomography of the jaws) are necessary to prediction of tooth retention. The accuracy of imaging and measurements on orthopantomograms of the jaws was studied by both domestic and foreign authors.

The angle of inclination of lower wisdom tooth, the size of the retromolar space of the mandible and the mesiodistal size of the teeth are determined on OPTG of jaws in the vast majority of publications. The age aspect of patients is also important for prediction of tooth impaction. In particular, most researchers state the fact that up to 20 years of life there is a significant probability of changing the position of the teeth during their eruption and therefore it is quite appropriate to wait.

To predict the nature of the impaction of the third lower molars, the authors provide indicators of the angle of the tooth, the structure of their roots, the degree of impact and age of the patient.

The publication of Maria Mersedes Gallas-Torreira and co-authors, which compared two methods of linear measurements on OPTG – Olive-Basford’s and Olmos ’methods have greatest interest. Both methods can be used to predict of impaction of lower wisdom tooth. However, if the prognostic estimate is based on orthopantomogram data rather than cone-beam computed tomography, the Olmos` method demonstrates a lower error rate and a more plausible prediction.

To substantiate the algorithm for predicting the vertical retention of third lower molar in order to improve treatment tactics for the preservation or removal of the tooth which based on the obtained search data and the results of our own clinical observations and it is planned in the future.