Do you mean treatment for pericoronits?

One cannot do odontectomy without removing the nerve as well.

Joel

PS- The term, "partial odontectomy" is an oxymoron.

Dr. Pham is an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon teaching and practicing at
the University of Montreal. I don't remember his first name, but I'll
try to find out. If you Google on "Pham" + "Wisdom Tooth Removal" you
may hit some articles he's done on this subject. He taught us this
procedure in a Continuing Ed course a while back, and judging from the
number of questions he fielded on it, it is not well known.

That is what is hoped (best-case scenario), yes. The idea is to totally
remove the crown right down to the roots and then close. I don't
remember if he puts any sedative dressing on the exposed nerve tissue in
the root fragments, but I don't think so. Obviously, there are also
risks of infection and abscess/granuloma/cyst formation when one leaves
root fragments in the sockets. However, if your OMFS has done a few of
these and has had success, I'd give it serious consideration.

If we're lucky, one or both of the OMFS's that haunt this castle will
give you the benefit of their experiences.
Cheers
SP

Peter you sound well informed and you might be familier with the
literature on this subject but it sounds like a viable technique in
the right situation.  Here is a short comment from a recent article.
More can be found at Medline.

Coronectomy (intentional partial odontectomy of lower third molars). 

Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and
Endodontology, Volume  98, Issue  3, Pages  274-280

B.  O"Riordan
Conclusions Coronectomy is a worthwhile option to extraction where a
lower third molar is judged to be in close proximity to the inferior
alveolar nerve. In lower third molar removal the potential damage is
high when certain radiographic signs are present, whereas the
infection rate of roots remaining after coronectomy is, by contrast,
low.

charles j ruff, dmd
specialist in orthodontics
board certified in orthodontics