Mandibular third molar extraction: perceived surgical difficulty in relation to professional training.

BACKGROUND: Establishing the level of surgical difficulty pre-operatively is an essential step in ensuring correct treatment planning. This study set out to determine whether the knowledge and experience acquired by dentists who had received different levels of training influenced, firstly, the perceived levels of difficulty of a variety of cases of mandibular third molar (MTM) extraction and, secondly, the perceived difficulty deriving from a series of factors (patient-related factors, anatomical and radiographic factors, operative factors). METHODS: This cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study took the form of a survey. Using a visual analog scale (VAS), participants evaluated both the perceived difficulty of 30 cases of MTM extraction described by means of digital panoramic radiographs and the perceived difficulty deriving from a series of factors conditioning MTM extraction. The results underwent statistical analysis with SPSS Statistics 28.0 software. Non-parametric tests (Mann Whitney test for independent samples and the Kruskal-Wallis test) were applied. RESULTS: A total of 389 surveys were available for analysis. Dental practioners with no surgical training saw the intervention as presenting greater difficulty. Professionals with postgraduate training in oral surgery considered patient-related factors more important than operative factors, in contrast to dentists who had not received oral surgery training. CONCLUSIONS: Dental training has a signficant influence on the perceived difficulty of MTM extraction and also affects opinions about which factors have greater or lesser influence on surgical difficulty.

Diagnostic challenge and management of intraosseous mandibular hemangiomas: a case report and literature review.

Hemangioma is a benign tumor characterized by the proliferation of blood vessels. Although it often appears in soft tissues, its occurrence in bone tissue, particularly the mandible, is extremely rare. A 32-year-old female sought attention at the dental clinic complaining of a painless swelling in the posterior region of the left side of the mandible. A panoramic radiograph and computed axial tomography scan were taken, showing honeycomb and sunburst images, respectively, in the affected area. The patient underwent a biopsy, which led to the diagnosis of intraosseous hemangioma. Having assessed the characteristics of the lesion, it was decided to perform complete excision including safety margins, followed by an iliac crest bone graft to reconstruct the mandible. Awareness of the possible clinical and radiographic presentations of intraosseous hemangioma is considered important, as non-diagnosis could have severe consequences given its possible relation to dental structures.