Incidence of Inferior Alveolar Nerve Damage and Recovery Following Mandibular Third Molar Surgery: Two Year Prospective Study

Neurosensory disturbance is the most serious complication following surgical extraction of impacted mandibular third molar. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the incidence of inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) damage after mandibular third molar surgery. Impacted mandibular third molars extracted by a single experienced surgeon under same protocol. Subjective (self-reported) sensory changes were evaluated 1 week after the surgery to determine the IAN damages. Cases with IAN injury were re-evaluated 3 months, 6 months and 1year after the surgery to record the recovery pattern. Data were collected in SPSS software and analyzed using t-test and chi-square tests. 589 impacted third molars in 417 patients were included in this study. 29 (4.92%) cases experienced neurosensory alteration after surgery. However, 27 (93.1%) IAN injuries were recovered after 6 months. While no significant association was found between age or gender and IAN injury rate (P-value > 0.05), surgeries with higher difficulty level had significantly higher rate of IAN injury (P-value < 0.05). Based on the results of the present study, the risk of neurosensory disturbances following mandibular third molar surgery was relatively low and most of the injuries were transient and resolved within 6 months.