Piezosurgery versus conventional rotary surgery for impacted third molars: A randomised, split-mouth, clinical pilot trial.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have compared the effects of piezosurgery and conventional rotary surgery for impacted wisdom teeth on the quality of life. Among these studies, the inclusion parameters and evaluation methods have varied.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study aimed to compare the effects of piezosurgery and conventional rotary instruments on the quality of life using a standardised method. Patients with bilateral and symmetric mandibular impacted wisdom teeth were included based on the Winter and Pell-Gregory scale and Yuasa difficulty index criteria. The primary objective was to assess the effects of the methods on the quality of life using the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 questionnaire. Secondary objectives included comparisons of swelling, trismus, pain, and total operative times. The study was conducted between October 2021 and March 2022. The clinical trial protocol was recorded in the United States National Library of Medicine clinical trial registry (NCT05545553).

RESULTS: We enrolled 20 patients (40 wisdom teeth) and found that the removal of impacted teeth using the piezosurgery method positively affected the quality of life and considerably improved swelling, trismus, and pain scores. However, piezosurgery may affect postoperative morbidities such as increased total operative times.

CONCLUSIONS: Piezosurgery appears to have advantages over conventional rotary surgery for impacted wisdom tooth extraction in terms of quality of life and postoperative symptoms. However, further research should investigate potential drawbacks and confirm these findings.