Analysis of impacted and retained teeth operated at Department of Oral Surgery, School of Dental Medicine, Zagreb.

The purpose of the present study is to see whether we follow global guidelines for operative procedures and diagnoses for impacted and retained teeth, and to compare these results with older results in Croatia. Operative protocols from Department of Oral Surgery, School of Dental Medicine, Zagreb in the period from 1997 till 1999 were used in the present study. 4756 patients were operated (total of 4857 diagnosis were set). Of all diagnoses, 24.89% (N=1209) belongs to dens impactus, 5.13% (N=249) to dens semiimpactus, 6.05% (N=294) to dens retentus and 0.64% (N=31) to dentitio difficilis. These four diagnoses make 36.71% of all 4857 set diagnoses. Most commonly impacted teeth are: 8- (38.64%), -8 (35.88%), 8+ (10.9%) and +8 (9.29%). Most commonly retained teeth are: 3+ (19.1%) and +3 (18.8%), while in the remaining two diagnoses -8 and 8- are most commonly diagnosed and operated teeth. Impacted teeth are in 97.90% of the cases operated by alveolotomy procedure. With semiimpacted teeth alveolotomy was conducted in 94.12% cases, and 5.10% of such teeth were extracted. With retained teeth alveolotomy was conducted in 65.21%, corticotomy in 23.01% and extraction in 8.77% of the cases. With dentitio difficilis alveolotomy was applied in 46.88%, extraction in 37.50%, circumcision in 9.38% and corticotomy in 6.25% of the cases. Intra muscular corticosteroids (Dexamethason) were used in 2.80% of the cases, most commonly with dens impactus and dens retentus diagnosis. PHD was done in 4.21% cases. Although its use is on the increase, Dexamethason is still rarely used in everyday practice, despite global guidelines for the postoperative use of corticosteroids. PHD analysis is used most commonly with retained teeth since they usually come with follicular cysts. Anesthesia without epinephrine was used in only 1.80% of the operating procedures, because the epinephrine solution used at Oral Surgery Department is 1:160000.