Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry UKM and UKM Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
BMJ Case Rep, 2017 Sep 27;2017.
PMID: 28954756 DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2017-221892

Abstract

Surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molar is a routine procedure in oral surgery. Various iatrogenic complications related to the procedure has been discussed well in the literatures before. Some of these complications are related to the wrong usage of instruments and techniques. Here we discuss a rare complication on a 42-year-old male, related to the use of high-speed handpiece drill in mandibular third molar removal in a general dental office setting. He was referred when a high speed tungsten carbide bur was accidentally broken and displaced into the mandibular bone during surgical procedure. It is not common to use a high-speed handpiece in impacted third molar removal. This iatrogenic complication could have been totally avoided with the use of proper equipment and technique; therefore raising awareness regarding wrong usage of instrument is vital to avoid similar incidents in the future.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.