Case Report
Third Molar Displacement into Submandibular Space
Mirlany Mendes Maciel Oliveira ,
1Rodrigo da Franca Acioly,
2Dennis Dinelly de Souza,
2Bruno Araújo da Silva,
2and Daniel Do Carmo Carvalho
21Bucomaxilofacial Surgery and Traumatology Clinical Hospital of the Federal University of Uberlândia (HC-UFU), Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil
2Buccomaxillofacial Surgery, Department of Buccomaxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology, Hospital Geral de Roraima, Boa Vista, RR, Brazil
Correspondence should be addressed to Mirlany Mendes Maciel Oliveira; [email protected] Received 19 November 2018; Revised 1 June 2019; Accepted 10 July 2019; Published 17 September 2019 Academic Editor: Daniel Torres-Lagares
Copyright © 2019 Mirlany Mendes Maciel Oliveira et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
There are various accidents and complications that may occur during extraction of dental elements. The displacement of dental elements to other facial spaces is one kind of the possible complications, and there may be significant physical and psychological results for the patient. The treatment for this kind of occurrence may vary from a conservative technique to surgical procedure, what will depend on clinical characteristics, symptoms, the location of the dental element, and its relation to adjacent structures.
The objective of this article is to report a clinical case of the displacement of a lower third molar tooth into the submandibular space during its extraction, followed by surgical removal through extraoral approach, with proservation for the next two years when patient evolved to paresthesia of the inferior alveolar nerve.
1. Introduction
The extraction of dental elements is one of the most common procedures in the dental surgeons’ routine, either for a gen- eral dentist or an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. However, as all other procedures in the dentalfield, the simplest oral surgeries can also present occurrence of accidents and com- plications [1].
Several accidents during dental extractions can occur, which include fractured mandible, damage to nervous struc- tures, and displacement of the element into facial spaces [2].
The displacement of teeth to neighboring spaces is a rare intraoperative accident in dental surgery and it can cause physical and psychological damage to the patient [1]. The possible causes of teeth displacement may be associated with excessive pressure, lack of experience of the professional, inadequate use of the surgical equipment, and anatomic characteristics of the patient [2, 3].
Lingually located teeth or deeply impacted molars pres- ent a higher risk of displacement to other facial spaces [4].
According to Aznar-Arasa et al. [3], the most common loca-
tion of displacement is into the maxillary sinus. Other places include submandibular space, lingual space, infratemporal fossa, oral space, pterygomandibular space, and lateral pha- ryngeal space [2, 5].
The symptoms after teeth displacement into facial spaces may vary from asymptomatic cases to pain report, edema, and mandible trismus, and based on thesefindings, it is indi- cated a choice between the removal of the dental element and a conservative treatment [3].
The open surgical technique, together with appropriate use of pressure and placement of retractors of the tongue region, can help minimize the occurrence of this kind of complication [4, 6, 7].
The present article is aimed at reporting a clinical case of the transoperative displacement of a lower third molar tooth into the submandibular space.
2. Case Report
Male patient, 21 years old, with leucoderma, denied underly- ing diseases or allergies, attended to the Oral and Maxillofacial
Hindawi
Case Reports in Dentistry
Volume 2019, Article ID 6137868, 3 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6137868
Surgical and Trauma Service of the General Hospital of Roraima-HGRR, with the main symptomatology of pain and edema after an attempt of extraction of the left lower third molar which evolved with complication transoperative of displacement to adjacent spaces. The patient reported that during the attempt to extract the dental element, he felt symptoms of intense pain and he was communicated of the transoperative accident. After the displacement of the dental element, the surgeon dentist attempted the removal of the tooth by using specially one of thefingers, but without suc- cess. After image examination of a cone beam computed tomography, the diagnosis of displacement of the third molar into submandibular space was confirmed. The management adopted was the procedure to remove the dental element under general anesthesia, and through an extraoral access on the left submandibular region, an incision in layers was made and the dental element was completely removed. The surgical procedure was performed without further complica- tions, and there was a review of hemostasis, suture of layers using thread vicryl 3-0, external suture using nylon thread 5-0, and review of the systems (Figures 1–3).
After 2 years of proservation, the patient presents pre- served masticatory functions, satisfactory mouth opening, and the occurrence of alveolar inferior nerve paresthesia.
3. Discussion
Nowadays, the extraction of dental elements is a routine pro- cedure in dental offices. However, individual analysis of each case is needed to perform this procedure.
The surgeon should not underestimate the procedure by considering it easy atfirst; there should be an efficient preop- erative analysis, and after the extraction, a clinical and radio- graphic analysis of the place the tooth element has been removed from [6, 8].
Surgeon dentists who perform third molar extractions should consider the local characteristics of the dental element in order to evaluate the level of difficulty the surgical proce- dure might present. These characteristics include level of impactation, root format, dental inclination, and bone density [4, 9].
Bimanual examination can help finding the fragment location, associated to radiograph and tomography images, seeking for the exact local, especially in cases of lower tooth displacement. The advantages of external pressure include avoiding displacement of the fragment, elevation of the mouth floor, and palpation of the area. However, this approach is not recommended if patients present edema or obesity [1]. In case displacement of a dental element into facial spaces occurs, careful thinking should indicate the management procedures to be adopted. Attempts of immedi- ate removal with lack of skills or lack of anatomic and surgi- cal knowledge may worsen the condition by deepening the fragment or moving it into adjacent spaces [5].
If fragments are bigger than 5 mm, there should be a sur- gical procedure, but if fragment is smaller than 5 mm and it is not palpable, the conservative treatment can be an option.
However, if dental element is left for a long period of time, it is possible that there will be reaction to a foreign body as well as the possibility of infection in the neck spaces [4].
The surgeon experience is an important aspect to be con- sidered, but it is not determinant for the occurrence of teeth displacement into facial spaces, because both general surgeon dentists and specialists in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery may face the occurrence of this kind of accident.
In the international literature, it is possible to find other accidents related to dental removal which include the displacement of a dental high-speed piece bur into sub- mandibular space and a broken needle dislodged into the prevertebral space [5, 10, 11].
Figure 1: Computed tomography 3D reconstruction. Figure 2: Removal of dental element by extraoral access.
Figure 3: Third molar removed.
2 Case Reports in Dentistry
4. Conclusion
The displacement of dental elements is a rare accident, but potentially serious. Although third molars are the dental elements mostly involved in displacement into facial spaces, the other teeth can also be responsible for these accidents. Thus, the case should be sent to an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon to provide adequate diagnosis, verify the exact location of the dental fragment through imaging exams, and plan the removal or not of the element, based on clinical characteristics, location, noble adjacent struc- tures, and size of the element located in the neighboring facial spaces.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in relation to the publication of this document.
References
[1] S. Zhao, Z. Huang, T. Geng, and L. Huang,“Intraoral man- agement of iatrogenically displaced lower third molar roots in the sublingual space: a report of 2 cases,” International Jour- nal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 19591–19595, 2015.
[2] W. Chang, T. Chang, K. Chiu, C. Wu, and Y. Chen,“Acciden- tal iatrogenic displacement of the mandibular third molar into the lateral pharyngeal space-a case report,” Tawian J Oral Maxillofac Surg, vol. 25, pp. 119–126, 2014.
[3] L. Aznar-Arasa, R. Figueiredo, and C. Gay-Escoda, “Iatro- genic displacement of lower third molar roots into the sublin- gual space: report of 6 cases,” Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. e107–e115, 2012.
[4] M. A. Nusrath and R. J. Banks,“Unrecognised displacement of mandibular molar root into the submandibular space,” British Dental Journal, vol. 209, no. 6, pp. 279-280, 2010.
[5] S. Yalcin, I. Aktas, Y. Emes, and B. Atalay, “Accidental dis- placement of a high-speed handpiece bur during mandibu- lar third molar surgery: a case report,” Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontics, vol. 105, no. 3, pp. e29–e31, 2008.
[6] P. Bozkurt and E. Erdem,“Management of upper and lower molars that are displaced into the neighbouring spaces,” Brit- ish Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 55, pp. 49–
52, 2017.
[7] A. Campbell and B. J. Costello,“Retrieval of a displaced third molar using navigation and active image guidance,” Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 480–485, 2010.
[8] N. Medeiros and G. Gaffrée, “Accidental displacement of inferior third molar into the lateral pharyngeal space: case report,” Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 578–580, 2008.
[9] C. E. Sverzut, A. E. Trivellato, A. T. Sverzut, F. P. Matos, and R. B. Kato, “Removal of a maxillary third molar acci- dentally displaced into the infratemporal fossa via intraoral approach under local anesthesia: report of a case,” Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 67, no. 6, pp. 1316–1320, 2009.
[10] K. Kamburoglu, S. Kursun, and B. Oztas, “Submandibular displacement of a mandibular third molar root during extrac- tion: a case report,” Cases Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, article 8, 2010.
[11] B. Sahin, S. Yildirimturk, Y. Sirin, and B. Basaran,“Displace- ment of a broken dental injection needle into the perivertebral space,” Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. e474–
e477, 2017.
3 Case Reports in Dentistry
Dentistry
International Journal ofHindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Environmental and Public Health
Journal of
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2013
Hindawi www.hindawi.com
The Scientific World Journal
Volume 2018 Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Public Health
Advances inHindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Case Reports in Medicine
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
International Journal of
Biomaterials
Scientifica
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Pain
Research and TreatmentHindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Preventive MedicineAdvances in
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Case Reports in Dentistry
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Surgery
Research and Practice
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
BioMed
Research International
Medicine
Advances inHindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Anesthesiology Research and Practice
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Radiology
Research and Practice
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine
Endocrinology
International Journal ofHindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Orthopedics
Advances inDrug Delivery
Journal ofHindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018