Impacted wisdom teeth.
BACKGROUND
The incidence of impacted wisdom teeth is high, with some 72% of Swedish people aged 20-30 years having at least one impacted third molar. Impacted wisdom teeth occur owing to a lack of space, obstruction, or abnormal position, and can cause pain, swelling, and infection, and may destroy adjacent teeth and bone.


METHODS
We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: Should asymptomatic and disease-free impacted wisdom teeth be removed prophylactically? What are the effects of different surgical methods of removing impacted wisdom teeth? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library and other important databases up to August 2006 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.


RESULTS
We found 29 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria.


CONCLUSIONS
In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: prophylactic extraction; different surgical methods of removing impacted wisdom teeth.
Esposito
Marco
M
School of Dentistry, The University of Manchester, Higher Cambridge Street, Manchester, UK.
Coulthard
Paul
P
D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D006801:Humans; D008964:Molar, Third