Minor oral surgery on impacted lower third molar done by IIUM Undergraduates: a retrospective study

Abstract

Minor oral surgery (MOS) is one of the important requirements for dental undergraduates to perform in Kulliyyah of Dentistry, IIUM. However, no assessment has been done on the suitability of the cases received by the students. Thus, this study was aimed to describe type of cases and level of difficulty in relation to undergraduate year of study. This study consisted of 97 subjects who had undergone MOS by IIUM undergraduate from September 2014 to October 2015. Data was collected from patient’s documentation and orthopantomogram. Pederson index and relationship to inferior dental nerve were used to determine the difficulty index level. Statistical analysis was done using Chi-square test with statistical significance set at p? 0.05. The mean age of the patients was 24 years old, with male to female ratio 1:1.9. 52.6% of the cases were indicated for surgery due to recurrent pericoronitis. The types of cases mostly received by undergraduates were Class IA (30.9%) and Class IIA (48.5%) with mesioangular impaction (39.2%). Year 4 students received more difficult cases compared to Year 5 (p = 0.504) with less complications postoperatively. Dental undergraduates received simple to moderate cases for MOS, and no significant association was found between year of undergraduate study and difficulty level of the cases.