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

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Determining the reasons for the extraction of primary teeth is of high importance for countries in terms of taking precautions while establishing their health policies. The aim of this study was to investigate the main causes of primary tooth extraction and the most commonly extracted tooth type in children aged 0-13 years. METHODS: The records of patients aged 0-13 years admitted to the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey, between 2016 and 2020 were collected. The patients' age, gender, number of extracted teeth, and causes of extraction were analyzed retrospectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U, independent samples t-test, Welch ANOVA with post-hoc Tamhane, and Pearson's chi-square test were used for analyses. Statistical significance 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 in patients aged 0-13 years were investigated. Dental caries (55.1%) was the most common cause of deciduous teeth extraction. Moreover, it was the most common reason for deciduous teeth extraction in 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 in this study, steps should be taken regarding the implementation of preventive dentistry programs.