Pattern and Reasons for Permanent Tooth Extractions at Dental Clinics of the University of Science and Technology of Fujairah, UAE

To evaluate the pattern and reasons for permanent tooth extractions in an adult patient seeking free dental care at clinics of the University of Science and Technology of Fujairah, UAE.

The current retrospective study involved patients who had a dental extraction in the student dental clinics of the University of Science and Technology of Fujairah. Data of 1000 randomly selected extractions were collected from the archive of the university dental clinics.

Males had more teeth extracted (88.3%) than females. The most frequent extraction (58.9%) was in individuals of 30-49 years old range. Dental caries was the major reason (44.6%) of extractions, followed by wisdom teeth related extraction (23.4%), periodontal disease (18.1), failure of endodontically treated teeth (8.7%), prosthetic reasons (2.6), orthodontic reasons (1.7%), and trauma (0.9%) respectively. The most extracted teeth were the maxillary posterior teeth (45.6%), followed by mandibular posterior teeth (38.2%); then, maxillary anterior teeth (8.8) and lastly, were the mandibular anterior teeth (7.4%). Caries was significantly more frequent in female gender (χ2= 250.126; p=.000), while the periodontal disease was more common in male gender (χ2 = 146.790; p=.000).

Caries is the principal reason for tooth extractions, followed by wisdom teeth related problems and periodontal disease. There is an increasing percentage of tooth extraction due to periodontal disease with both aging and male gender. Caries was the more frequent reason for extraction in all quadrants, except the lower anterior teeth in which periodontal disease was the more frequent reason. Lastly, anterior teeth were retained in the oral cavity more than posterior teeth.