Nerve paralysis after third molar extraction

Abstract

This paper described the incidence of inferior alveolar nerve paralysis following surgical removal of impacted third molars. The investigated cases were 789 patients with 1,299 teeth that were surgically extracted. Eight (0.6%) patients had the inferior alveolar nerve paralysis and one (0.08%) had lingual nerve paralysis. As for the patients with inferior alveolar nerve paralysis, the incidence was 0.4% in those aged 20 to 29 years, 0.6% in those aged 30 to 39 years, and 3.5% in those aged over 40 years. This study showed that the incidence of inferior alveolar nerve paralysis occurred more frequently in older age cases and in the cases in which the root splitting or the removing the surrounding bone was needed.