Surgical removal of third molars

BMJ 1994;309:620-621 (10 September)

Editorials

Surgical removal of third molars

The surgical removal of teeth is one of the four surgical operationsincluded in both top 10 day case and inpatient NHS proceduresfor England and Wales.¹ The other three procedures, for 1989-90,were endoscopic operations on the upper gastrointestinal tractand bladder and evacuation of the contents of the uterus. Surprisingly,in the last year for which statistics are available (1989-90)more than twice as many people (60 000) were admitted for thesurgical removal of teeth as were treated as day cases (28 000).For inpatient procedures, the surgical removal of teeth wasninth in frequency behind vasectomy. The surgical removal ofthird molars (wisdom teeth) accounted for 70% of these proceduresin 1989-90. In addition, 67 000 people had their third molarsremoved by dental practitioners in the general dental serviceand 22 000 had their third molars removed in the private sector.The total cost of . . . [Full text of this article]

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