Operculectomy
Today I had an interesting presentation of a lower 8. It had almost fully erupted but still had a distal operculum that had caused an initial bout of pericoronitis. It was obvious that there was proper spacing for the tooth to fit in the arch and My question is if the operculum would receede naturally or would require removal. The patient was 25 years old and apaprently it had been a while since the eruption of the tooth. A couple of thoughts: -Start with conservative management, improve OH, and mouth rinses -Antibiotics are not indicated for mild pericoronitis. -Do not perform an operculectomy on an inflamed site, it will bleed more, be more difficult to handle and once inflammation has settled, the result may not look ideal as this site will be larger than at its baseline state. I will recheck this case and check the healing.