TOOTH EXTRACTION

The extraction of permanent teeth for orthodonticreasons has been a hot topic of debate in the past and continues to be of interesteven today. There is a considerable controversy concerning extraction as a treatmentadjunct which sometimes reaches to the intensity of sacred beliefs. Objective: Theaim of this study was to report the frequency of tooth extraction and its pattern inPakistani orthodontic patients. Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional. Setting: ArmedForces Institute of Dentistry (AFID), Rawalpindi. Period: 1st July 2012 to 30th June 2014. Material& Methods: The study sample consisted of 489 patients reporting to the orthodonticdepartment at AFID. Patients between the age of 7 – 21 years were selected. Patientsbeing treated with the extraction of permanent teeth (excluding third molars) wereincluded in this study. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 24. Descriptive statisticswere calculated. Results: A total of 296 patients did not require any extraction. Theremaining 193 patients required and experienced extraction of permanent teeth aspart of their orthodontic treatment plan resulting in an over-all extraction frequencyof 39.5%. Most of the extracted teeth were first premolars especially from the upperarch. Association of extraction status (extraction vs non-extraction) with gender wasfound to be statistically insignificant (p = 0.393). Conclusion: There is a moderatefrequency of extraction in the orthodontic patients with less than half of the totalpatients requiring extraction as part of their treatment.