Assessment of Prevalence of Enamel Defects in Permanent Dentition Among Children Visiting A Dental Institution in Chennai: Retrospective Study

Disturbances in the hard tissue matrices during odontogenesis may cause demarcated opacity and diffuse opacity which may lead to hypoplasia. Clinical significance of which predisposes the teeth to dental caries and may cause aesthetic problems such as stained defects or tooth sensitivity. The aim of our study is to assess the prevalence of enamel defects in permanent dentition in patients attending a private dental hospital. This study was done at Saveetha dental college and hospitals. The sample size consisted of 36 patients in the age group 5-20 years who had visited the institution for dental check. It included various parameters such as age, gender, location of enamel defects and type of enamel defects. The cast sheets of patients were obtained from the information archiving system. The data of each patient was obtained and tabulated. Findings of this study show that prevalence of enamel defects in male population (66.7%) was more than the female population (33.3%). Higher prevalence was seen in age group 16-20 years (69.4%) followed by 11-15 years (16.7%) and 5-10years (13.9%). Fluorosis (94.4%) was seen at a higher prevalence than molar incisor hypoplasia (5.6%). Location of enamel defects had a prevalence occurring in both arch (86.1%) followed by anteriors (8.3%) and posteriors (5.6%). Hence the results of the study show fluorosis is a highly prevalent enamel defect in the age group 16-20 years and males had a higher incidence than females. From the present study we can conclude that fluorosis is a highly prevalent enamel defect in the age group 16-20 years followed by Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation (MIH) and early diagnosis of these defects can help in better treatment and prognosis.