Single-centre retrospective study of postoperative complications after removal of mandibular third molars using a straight lowspeed handpiece

Objective: We aimed to analyze the incidence of postoperative complications after the removal of impacted mandibular third molars using a dental straight, low-speed handpiece. Methods: This single-center retrospective descriptive study was conducted from January 2018 to December 2021. Inclusion criteria for the enrolled patients were complete medical records, no history of systemic disease, and received surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molars using a straight, low-speed handpiece. Results: A total of 1050 patients underwent mandibular third molar removal with a straight, low-speed handpiece under local anesthesia. Most complications occurred in cases involving horizontal angulation (15.4%) and those categorized as level B (13.3%) and class II (13.9%) impactions. The difficulty index indicated moderate difficulty in most cases (55.3%), with the most and least common postoperative complications being pain (5.7%) and paresthesia (1.5%), respectively. Conclusion: Most complications reported in this study were minor, transient, and within the ranges reported in the literature. No major complications, such as emphysema, were reported, while paresthesia was the least frequently reported complication. Thus, third molar removal using a straight, low-speed handpiece was associated with few complications and might be used as one of the safe procedures.