Abstract
A total of 421 patients with iatrogenic injury to the inferior alveolar nerve or lingual nerve injuries, including 3 patients with injury to both nerves, who visited the Acute Nerve Repair Outpatient at Tokyo Dental College from May 2011 to March 2019 were included in the study. We examined the sex, increase or decrease in the number of patients, time of visit, classification of the nerve disturbance, cause of nerve injury, annual trends in the injured nerve, route of visit, and number of conservative treatments. The number of cases were on the increase. The shortest time between the occurrence of the nerve injury and consultation was 1 day and the longest was 40 years 22 days. The number of patients indicated to peak at less than 2 months from onset and after 12 months. The inferior alveolar nerve and lingual nerve were affected in 282 and 142 patients, respectively. Nerve injury most commonly occurred during wisdom tooth extraction. Forty-seven patients underwent surgical treatment. Severe lingual nerve injury caused more severe symptoms and required surgical treatment more commonly than inferior alveolar nerve injury. It is necessary to educate dental clinicians regarding nerve injuries, anatomy of the lingual nerve, and symptoms of lingual nerve injury.
