The influence of wisdom tooth impaction on root formation

The development of wisdom teeth occurs within a definite period of time. The correlation of wisdom tooth development and chronological age has been frequently used for several purposes, e. g. the start of orthodontic treatment, estimates of age or, for legal and anthropological purposes. Wisdom teeth are frequently impacted in the bone. It has been argued that the impaction of wisdom teeth can cause a delay in root development. This thesis could have bearing on age estimations in teenagers and young adults and the timing of dental treatment. The aim of this study was to determine whether the impaction of wisdom teeth influences the velocity of root formation. Material and methods: The dental x-rays (orthopantomograms) of 1053 outpatients were evaluated (age: 14 to 24 years). The condition impacted or not impacted was registered for each wisdom tooth present. The impaction types were further classified. The data were then calculated using statistical tools. Results: The correlation between the developmental stages of wisdom teeth and the chronological age is high. However, neither any impaction type nor the whole group of retained wisdom teeth showed a statistically significant different course of root development compared to the root development of non-retained wisdom teeth. Discussion: This study provides evidence for the lack of bearing of wisdom teeth topography on the growth stages of the dental roots within definite time intervals, based on the evaluation of orthopantomograms only. Obviously, the variations of root formation in the selected chronological periods are greater than the variations attributable to possible periods of delay in root formation of retained wisdom teeth. These results could have some importance for the fields of dental anthropology and dentistry.