Page 121 - Demo

Oral Health-related quality of life after coronectomy for impacted mandibular third molar1196coronectomy have shown that the roots remained vital without degenerative changes.26-27 Moreover, a long-term study showed no evidence to support the notion that retained roots required an endodontic procedure.11 A pilot study by Sencimen et al (2010) compared coronectomies with and without endodontic treatment. They concluded that intraoperative root canal therapy did not add any benefit to the outcome, but considerably increased the complication and infection rates; therefore, it was not recommended.28The main limitation of this study was that we included only 50 participants. Although the procedure was similar in all cases, a small sample size increases the margin of error and affects the reliability of the study results.Another potential limitation was that, although the OHIP-14 questionnaire was a reliable, useful tool for assessing OHRQoL, it was based on self-reports completed by patients after oral surgery. Therefore, the data could not be controlled, and we could not rule out a certain degree of bias. In conclusion, the results of the present study showed that a coronectomy of an impacted mandibular third molar affected the OHRQoL of patients, particularly in the first three postoperative days. This information should be considered, when assisting patients in planning their schedules and preparing themselves psychologically. A coronectomy seems to have a greater impact on the OHRQoL than the total surgical removal of mandibular third molars.