PERICORONITIS AND TONSILLITIS - CLINICAL AND DARK-FIELD MICROSCOPY FINDINGS

Objective. Upper respiratory tract infections and tonsillitis and phar yngitis in particular increase the risk of lower third molar pericoron itis. This study was made to investigate clinical and microbiologic as sociations between pericoronitis and tonsillitis. Study design. The su bjects were 20-year-old Finnish male conscripts. Thirty-eight patients had tonsillitis without and 33 patients had tonsillitis with a sympto m-free erupting lower third molar; 27 patients had pericoronitis but h ealthy tonsils. All subjects were examined clinically. Bacterial sampl es were taken from healthy and diseased tonsils and from healthy and d iseased third molar pericoronal pockets. The microbes were classified morphologically with the use of a darkfield microscope. Results. Eight y-two percent of infected tonsils had deep crypts and 52% of them exud ated pus compared with 36% (p<0.001) and 0% (p<0.001) in healthy tonsi ls, respectively. Infected lower third molars were less than half erup ted and had on average 8.8 mm deep pericoronal pockets compared with p ockets 5.5 mm deep recorded in symptom-free cases (p<0.001). Spirochet es were more common in infected pockets than in symptom-free cases com prising 8.2% versus 3.0% of the total bacterial count (p=0.044). Rods were more common in infected tonsils than in healthy ones (8.9% versus 4.8%, p=0.041). Conclusion. There were similarities in morphologic mi crobiota of pericoronitis and tonsillitis. However, clinical findings of tonsils did not appear to link with the findings of third molars.