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Introduction: Crowding is the deviation in the alignment of the teeth within the same arch. The cause of late incisor crowding is controversial, and the debate about the involvement of third molars in the development of late incisor crowding is still a topic of interest.

Objective: To evaluate the relation between eruption status of mandibular third molar and mandibular incisor crowding using Little’s Irregularity Index on cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans.

Methodology: A total of 126 CBCT scans were conveniently selected from 2024 February to April after institutional ethical clearance according to the inclusion criteria and were grouped into three groups for this analytical cross-sectional study. The images were observed in the axial view and manually marked to calculate the amount of crowding using Little’s irregularity index. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS v.21. Descriptive statistics like mean and standard deviation was calculated. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was done to assess the statistically significant difference. Post-hoc Tukey test was done to assess the difference between each group. Independent t-test was done to compare the gender difference. Statistical level was set at p ≤0.05 for significance.

Result: Statistically significant differences were observed among the three groups on applying one-way ANOVA. Lower incisor crowding has no relation with the status of mandibular third molar on applying Post-hoc Tukey test. Statistically significant difference was observed between the genders.

Conclusion: The findings of this study provide substantial evidence to suggest that presence, absence, or partially erupted mandibular third molar has no role in contributing lower incisor crowding.

Cone beam computed tomography; eruption; impaction; mandibular incisor crowding; third molar.