Somatosensory evoked potential assessment of the inferior alveolar nerve following third molar extraction.

Injury to the inferior alveolar nerve can occur during 3rd molar removal. In this study, 14 patients who had 3rd molars removed were evaluated by 4 methods: 1) threshold to electrical stimulation, 2) visual analogue scale subjective ratings of electrical stimulation, 3) two-point discrimination in mental nerve area, and 4) analysis of somatosensory evoked potentials. The last technique proved to be the most sensitive of the methods, providing an objective evaluation as compared to other methods which require a subjective interpretation by the patient.