Evaluation of causes of primary teeth extraction by age and gender in pediatric patients admitted to a university hospital

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Determining the reasons causing the extraction of primary teeth is significant for countries in terms of taking the precautions while establishing their health policies. The aim of this study was to investigate the main causes for primary teeth extraction and the most common tooth type in children aged 0-13 years. METHODS: The records of patients aged 0-13 years who admitted to the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, between 2016 and 2020, were collected. The patients' age, gender, number of extracted tooth, and causes of extraction were analyzed retrospectively. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U, independent samples t, Welch ANOVA with post-hoc Tamhane, and Pearson's chi-square tests were used for analyses. Statistical significant level was considered at P<0.05. RESULTS: In this study, 3076 deciduous teeth of 1363 pediatric patients aged 0-13 years (mean age of 7.8 ± 2.1 years) were evaluated. No difference was found between the genders in terms of the number of extractions (P = 0.489). The most common reasons for extraction were caries and mobility/root resorption, which constituted 55.1% and 42.4% of the extractions, respectively. CONCLUSION: In this study, the teeth extraction of the patients aged 0-13 years was investigated. Dental caries (55.1%) was the most common cause of deciduous teeth extraction. Also, it was the most common reason of deciduous teeth extraction for the age groups of 0-5 and 6-9 years. Primary molar teeth were the most commonly extracted teeth. Although there was no significant difference between genders, striking results were recorded regarding teeth types in different age groups. According to the results obtained from this study, steps should be taken regarding preventive dentistry programs.