[National survey: Avulsion of included wisdom teeth in mandibular orthognathic surgery].

INTRODUCTION: There is no recommendation concerning wisdom teeth (WT) extraction in mandibular orthognathic surgery. We carried out an investigation among the members of the French Society of Stomatology and Oro-maxillofacial Surgery (SFSCMFCO), in order to evaluate the practices and habits of maxillofacial surgeons in this field.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We emailed the 424 members of the SFSCMFCO with a questionnaire.

RESULTS: We obtained 143 feedbacks that could be exploited. In total, 72.5% of practitioners prefer WT to be extracted before performing a bilateral sagittal spilt osteotomy (BSSO). In this case, a period of 6 months between the two surgeries was considered as desirable by more than 70% of the surgeons. In total, 74.6% of the surgeons thought that the presence of WT could make a BSSO more complicated. However, 73.9% of the surgeons would not postpone the BBSO in a patient ready for surgery but with remaining impacted WT.

DISCUSSION: A majority of surgeons think that the presence of impacted WT may complicate a BSSO and increases the risk of bad split. Most of the authors recommend extracting the impacted WT 6 months before BSSO at least. However, these potential complications are easy to overcome and don't compromise the final result. Therefore, we think that impacted WT should not delay a BSSO if the orthodontic preparation makes the patient ready for surgery.