Pattern, incidence and causes of partial edentulism in a group of patients attending dental school of Sulaimani university

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the pattern of partial edentulism and its relationship with age, gender and etiological factors in group of patients attending prosthodontic department, School of dentistry, University of Sulaimani-Iraq.
 Materials and Methods: The study sample consisted of 274 patients attending prosthodontic department, the partial edentulism was recorded by visual examination using Kennedy’s Classification. The source of data was patient’s case sheets and the patients were informed that the recorded informations were required for a research purpose and their consent and agreements were taken verbally. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 and presented as a simple frequency table and figures.
 Results: The study results showed that 170 of the patients were female (62.1%) and 104 of the patient were male (37.9%). The most frequently occurred Kennedy class was Kennedy Class I (39.2%) followed by Kennedy Class III and II (31.9%), (27.6%) respectively and the least frequent was Kennedy Class IV (1.3%). The highest percentage of Kennedy class I arch was seen in the mandible (49.4%), while the most frequently seen Kennedy class in the maxilla was class III arch (40.9%), with an increase in age, there is an increase in class I and class II dental arches and a decrease in class III arch both in maxilla and in mandible. Finally, the results revealed that the most frequent reason of exodontias stand out to be caries in both male and female (81.7%), (85.2%) respectively.
 Conclusions: It was concluded that the most common pattern of partial edentulism in examined sample was found to be class I in mandible then class III in maxilla and class IV being the least common in both jaws. The mandibular arches are more partially edentulous than maxillary arches and female patients more demanding Prosthodontic treatments than male patients. With an increase in age there is a transition of bounded saddle to free end saddles and the principle cause of tooth loss was dental caries.