Economic and health implications of routine CBCT examination before surgical removal of the mandibular third molar in the Danish population

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

'...incitements for implementing new technology will tend to follow market rules and not entirely scientific or ethical standards.'

Main

Petersen LB, Olsen KR et al. Dentomaxillofac Radiol 2015;44: 20140406.

What is the excess cancer incidence, and the financial costs associated with the routine use of CBCT before surgical removal of wisdom teeth? This study was carried out in Denmark. The investigators interrogated data from 17 selected clinics from 2008 to 2014. Those extractions carried out by specialists or in universities were excluded. During one year, 1,369 mandibular third molar teeth were removed surgically from a total of 95,789 patients. Coronectomies comprised 2.9% of these included surgical procedures. Extrapolating these numbers for the whole country, it was estimated that 36,882 wisdom teeth were extracted each year. The estimated additional cancer incidence in Denmark of carrying out routine CBCT before surgical removal of wisdom teeth was 0.46 per annum. The estimated direct fiscal cost of carrying out this diagnostic procedure was €6.6 million per annum. This can be compared with the cost of €1.8 million for taking panoramic radiographs. The cost of each diagnostic procedure was made by this group in an earlier published study.