Conservative, non-surgical management of patients presenting with impacted lower third molars: a 5-year study.

Our aim was to find out what happened over a period of 5 years to fully or partially impacted mandibular third molars that were left alone. The change in emphasis towards non-intervention in patients with asymptomatic impacted wisdom teeth over the past few years was accompanied by considerable debate as to the eventual outcome of such teeth. Examination of a number of factors including smoking, extent of eruption, depth of periodontal pocket, and history of pericoronitis failed to show any predictive factors that would indicate which teeth would subsequently require removal. However, about one-third of the teeth in this series had to be removed within the 5-year period. Although this does not allow a 'lifetime extrapolation', it blurs the edges of our current thinking about asymptomatic wisdom teeth and certainly suggests that further (possibly longer term) studies need to be completed. It does, however, provide little support for the reintroduction of prophylactic removal of wisdom teeth.