A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 2 studies. 1 RCT with 164 adolescents that compared the removal of impacted mandibular wisdom teeth with retention and only examined the effect on late lower incisor crowding. This study provided no evidence that extraction of wisdom teeth had an effect on lower incisor crowding over 5 years. The review found no studies comparing the removal of asymptomatic wisdom teeth with retention and reporting quality of life.One prospective cohort study (n=416) compared the effect of the absence (previous removal or agenesis) against the presence of asymptomatic disease-free impacted wisdom teeth on periodontitis and caries associated with the distal of the adjacent second molar. Very low quality evidence suggests that the presence of asymptomatic disease-free impacted wisdom teeth may be associated with increased risk of periodontitis.
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study limitations (lack of allocation concealment and high loss to follow-up in relation to observed absolute effect), by indirectness (differences between the outcomes of interest and those reported), and by imprecise results (few patients).
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