[Lingual nerve injury during extraction of lower wisdom teeth]

A lingual nerve injury is an infrequent but unpleasant complication of the removal of lower third molars. The nerve stays at risk even with a correct technique. The classifications of nerve injuries of Seddon and Sunderland give insight in the complexity and give guidelines for prognosis and treatment. Degeneration and regeneration as in other peripheral nerves occur also here and knowledge of these phenomena is crucial for the success of the microsurgical repair. Confronted with the problem, an attempt to a correct evaluation of the extent of the injury should be done, and transfer to a specialist is necessary when the dysesthesia is still persistent after more than 2 months.