Best treatment for pericoronitis associated with impacted mandibular third molar is:

 # Best treatment for pericoronitis associated with impacted mandibular third molar is:

A. Irrigating under the operculum

B. Antibiotic and analgesic therapy

C. Extraction of impacted third molar

D. Operculectomy

The correct answer is C. Extraction of impacted third molar. 

Patients who have severe pericoronitis around an impacted mandibular third molar should not have the tooth extracted until the pericoronitis has been treated. Nonsurgical treatment should include irrigations, antibiotics, and removal of the maxillary third molar, if necessary, to relieve impingement on the edematous soft tissue overlying the mandibular impaction. If the mandibular third molar is removed in the face of severe pericoronitis, the incidence of complications increases. If the pericoronitis is mild and the tooth can be removed easily, then immediate extraction may be performed.

Pericoronitis is most common cause for removal of impacted mandibular third molars. It is recurrent

in nature and may cause the damage of bone around the 2nd and 3rd molars. So extraction of the involved tooth is the best treatment.

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