[Preliminary discussion on the whole life-cycle management of third molars health]

The impaction rate of third molars is increasingly high, leading to more and more serious clinical problems. For a long time, the primary approach to managing third molars has been direct extraction, with a notable lack of systematic and diversified treatment methods. This article introduces, for the first time, the concept of whole life-cycle health management for third molars and suggests that the window for third molars life-cycle health management should be moved forward to the tooth germ stage. For tooth germs of third molars with severe risks, timely and necessary intervention should be administered. For normally erupting third molars, efforts should be made to maintain their health so they can function over the long term. For impacted third molars that have not caused related clinical symptoms, careful observation and cautious extraction should be considered. If necessary, techniques such as orthodontics and autotransplantation can be used to functionalize them. For impacted third molars that have caused clinical symptoms, functional oral surgical principles should be applied to reduce surgical trauma and prevent intraoperative and postoperative complications using advanced clinical techniques.