Table 5.
General risk factors |
- Patient's unrealistic expectations; |
- Pre-existing altered sensation; | |
- Improper selection of site for implant placement; | |
- Anatomical and radiological risk factors related to mandibular vital structures; | |
- Female patients; | |
- Increased age of patients. | |
Intraoperative risk factors |
- Protrusion through lingual or buccal plate; |
- Perforation of mandibular canal; | |
- Direct mechanical injury (manifests by "sudden give" type of feeling); | |
- Extensive bleeding; | |
- Extrusion of preparative debris into canal; | |
- Slippage of the drill, implant placement deeper than planned, or bigger diameter implant placement; | |
- Excessive force using implant drill (density and thickness of the bone surrounding the mandibular canal is not able to resist it); | |
- Repeated IAN blocks. | |
Postoperative risk factors |
- The fact that the IAN is contained within the bony canal (compression, ischemia); |
- Severity of injury; | |
- Interval between time of injury and diagnosis, treatment. |
IAN = inferior alveolar nerve.