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Oral Health-related quality of life after coronectomy for impacted mandibular third molar1076IntroductionSurgical removal of the mandibular third molar is a very common oral surgical procedure. Postoperative inflammatory conditions, like alveolar osteitis and surgical site infections, are frequent complications after this procedure, but they are typically easy to manage. A less common, but more serious complication is an inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) injury, which can lead to a neurosensory deficit. In 1-3.6% of IAN injuries, the neurosensory disturbance is permanent.1-3 This can cause long-term effects, such as persistent sensory loss, chronic pain, and depression.4, The risk of damaging the IAN is high during surgical removal of a third mandibular molar, due to the close relationship between the molar roots and the IAN. The IAN is located deep in the mandible; thus, a coronectomy can minimize the risk of IAN injury.5-11 The fundamental objective of a coronectomy is to prevent trauma to the IAN by removing only the crown of an impacted mandibular third molar. Thus, the roots remain in place, and the IAN is untouched.12 Previous reports on the mandibular third molar coronectomy were mainly focused on the surgical technique, root migration, postoperative IAN function, socket healing, and postoperative inflammatory parameters.3,6,13 Little emphasis has been placed on the postoperative quality of life (QoL). As in any surgery, the coronectomy of a mandibular third molar causes tissue damage, and as such, it will have an impact on the oral health-related quality of life OHRQoL. The present study aimed to investigate whether an impacted mandibular third molar coronectomy would affect the OHRQoL during the first postoperative week. We surveyed patients with the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP14) questionnaire. Previous studies have demonstrated the effect of surgical removal of mandibular third molars on OHRQoL with the OHIP-14 questionnaire, but no study focused on the mandibular third molar coronectomy.14-15 In addition, we assessed postoperative pain, swelling, trismus, alveolar osteitis, and infection in the week after a third mandibular molar coronectomy.