Abstract
Acute pericoronitis (AP) arises frequently in incompletely impacted mandibular third molars, but it remains unknown whether bone resorption in aging is associated with acute inflammation of the third molar. We conducted an experiment to compare the ratio of bone resorption to root length in the distal surface of the second molar (A), the proximal surface (B), and distal surface (C) in mesio-angular, incompletely impacted third molars in 27 young and 58 older adults with AP and 77 young and 79 older adults without a history of AP. Bone resorption in A, B, and C in older adults with AP demonstrated a significantly higher ratio when compared to those without AP, whereas there was no difference between those with and without AP in young adults except for B in women. However, there were no differences between bone resorption in B with AP in young and older women, and between bone resorption in C with AP in young and older adults. These indicate that AP and bone resorption are associated with incompletely impacted mandibular third molars in older adults.
Acknowledgments
This work was performed as a part consignment for the Creation and Support Program for Start-ups from Universities of the Japan Science and Technology Agency. We would like to thank Ms Hitomi Koike and Ms Shiho Kobayashi for their secretarial assistances.
Disclosures
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.