| Introduction: The crown of an impacted tooth is surrounded by the dental follicle. If such teeth remain impacted, the
follicular sac, too, will be preserved. Although the dental follicle preserves its original size in the majority of patients, in
some individuals it might undergo cystic changes and become tumoral, resulting in the formation of cysts and
odontogenic tumors in the jaws. Different references have reported different frequency rates for such lesions. The aim of
the present study was to evaluate lesions associated with impacted teeth in terms of age range, gender and the location
of these lesions in patients referring to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Tabriz Faculty of
Dentistry.
Materials and methods: In the present retrospective analytical/descriptive study, all the files of patients with
odontogenic lesions in their impacted teeth, who had referred to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology,
Tabriz Faculty of Dentistry, from 2004 to 2013, were reviewed. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and chisquared
test using SPSS 15.
Results: In the present study, of 1050 patient files evaluated, 33 cases (2.88) exhibited lesions associated with impacted
teeth. The most frequent lesion was dentigerous cysts with a frequency of 51.5%, followed by odontogenic keratocyst
with a frequency of 24.2%. The least frequent lesion was AOT (3%). The majority of the lesions occurred during the
third decade of life. In relation to location, upper canine and lower third molar areas exhibited the highest frequencies
of lesions.
Conclusion: If a tooth does not erupt at its usual time, it is necessary to evaluate the reasons for its failure to erupt. The
results of the present study showed a higher frequency of lesions associated with impacted teeth. |