Clinical articleClinical outcome of third molars in adults followed during 18 years 1
Section snippets
Patients and methods
This study was carried out at the Finnish Student Health Service in Helsinki between the years 1982 and 2000. The subjects were first-year students at the University of Helsinki in 1982, born in Helsinki in 1961 or 1962, and residing in Helsinki in 1982. The number of participants is shown in Table 1. The mean age of the subjects (n = 118) at baseline was 20.2 years (SD, ±0.6 year), and at the end of the study, it was 38.6 years (SD, ±0.6 year).
The subjects were clinically examined and
Results
The percentage of missing third molars at age 20 was 15% (11% in the upper jaw and 19% in the lower jaw). The total number of third molars present at baseline was 402. Third molars that were unerupted at age 20 were in most cases removed by age 38 (Fig 1). Similarly, initially partially erupted third molars were often removed by age 38 (Fig 2). A considerable number of initially erupted third molars were still erupted in the mouth 18 years later, namely 65% of teeth in the lower jaw and 44%
Discussion
It was not very probable that a third molar erupted between the ages of 32 and 38. In our study, there were only 3 upper third molars with advanced eruption (1%, 3 of 276 teeth). These teeth served no useful purpose in the occlusion as 2 of them were rudimentary teeth. In our earlier reports, we found that between the ages of 26 and 32, the percentage of advanced eruption was 3% (7 of 240 teeth),11 and during the period from 20 to 26 years, the percentage of erupting third molars was 25% (57 of
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Received from the Finnish Student Health Service, Helsinki, Fin-land.