The Evaluation Ki-67 and p53 Expressions in the Asymptomatic Impacted Third Molar Follicles

Objective: extraction of impacted tooth, especially the lower third molars which have highest prevalance of impaction, is the most common surgical procedure performed in oral surgery. there is still an ongoing debate about the extraction of asymptomatic fully impacted lower third molars. ki-67 is a proliferation marker protein used to evaluate the proliferative index of various cell populations. p53 is a tumor suppressor protein. unlike healthy cells, there is an increased expression of p53 in tumor cells. the aim of this study was to evaluate the ki-67 and p53 protein expression in dental follicles of asymptomatic fully impacted lower third molar teeth of smoking and non smoking patients.material-method: study population comprised 50 smoking and 50 non smoking patients. dental follicles of asymptomatic fully impacted lower third molar teeth attained from the patients were stained immunohistochemically with ki-67 and p53 antibodies and staining intensities and patterns of the specimens were evaluated.results: in our study, ki-67 and p53 stainings were found to be “negative” in both the study and the control group.conclusions: although it is known that smoking has adverse affects on health, in our study, we were unable to find any finding confirming that smoking habit increases pathological transformation risk of asymptomatic fully impacted teeth. therefore, when dealing with these teeth, detailed clinical and radiographical examinations with sociocultural aspects taken into consideration, monitorization can be the treatment of choice.