ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oral Health
Sec. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1647852
Standardized Coronectomy Versus Total Extraction for Impacted Mandibular Third Molars: A Single-blinded Prospective analysis of Patient-Reported Outcomes
Provisionally accepted- University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
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Coronectomy is proposed as an alternative to surgical extraction for impacted mandibular third molars, particularly in cases with an elevated surgical risk of inferior alveolar nerve injury. However, this procedure is not widely adopted by many surgeons due to concerns about potential complications and the perception that patients may be less likely to accept this treatment option.Methods: This cross-sectional, prospective, single-blinded study compared patient-reported outcomes between standardized coronectomy and extraction of impacted mandibular third molars in 70 patients (aged 19-55 years) using the Postoperative Symptom Severity (PoSSe) scale.Results: While coronectomy avoided nerve injury, it resulted in relatively longer recovery times (40% vs. 28.6% requiring ≥5 days) and prolonged medication use (34.3% vs. 14.3% >5 days) compared to extraction. Coronectomy patients reported significantly higher pain and swelling scores, particularly among females (>25 years), though neither procedure adversely affected eating, speech, or quality of life. Gender and age influenced outcomes, with females and older patients experiencing more pronounced postoperative morbidity after coronectomy.Discussion: These findings underscore the need for demographic-specific counseling and tailored postoperative care when selecting coronectomy. Further research with larger sample sizes is recommended to validate these findings and optimize decision-making for mandibular third molar surgeries.
Keywords: Third molar, Impaction, Surgical extraction, coronectomy, Quality of Life
Received: 16 Jun 2025; Accepted: 18 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mohamad, Saqan, Alkhazraji and Gaballah. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kamis Gaballah, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
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