Evaluation of dental plague removal procedure in adult population from the Łomża region

INTRODUCTION. The National Health Fund guarantees to insured persons free dental treatment as part of a catalog of scopes and benefits, such as dental treatment. Among the services included in the appendix there is a dental plaque removal procedure, which can be performed in adults once every 12 months or once every 6 months in the case of pregnant and puerperal women. This procedure involves breaking down the bacterial biofilm above and below the gingiva, rinsing it in vases with water from the periodontal area, and additionally, through the cavitation effect, it causes the implosion of air bubbles, directly destroying bacterial cells.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The analysis covered 2,114 patients aged 18-89 who visited the dentist from 01/01/2019 to 31/12/2019. The dental clinic was located in a medium-sized town in the Podlaskie Voivodeship.The dental plaque removal procedures were performed on patients by dentists and then coded in accordance with the ICD9 Basic Edition Dictionary ICD9 CM (5.18) “23.1601 - Removal of plaque from 1/2 of the dental arch”, respectively. The visits analyzed for this study were performed in the period from 01/01/2019 to 31/12/2019. In the following epidemiological descriptive study, secondary sources of information were used, in the form of collective reports generated from electronic records, which are stored in the dental clinic that provides dental care for patients under an agreement with the National Health Fund for general dental treatment.RESULTS. The total number of women undergoing the plaque removal procedure was significantly higher than the number of men. The distribution of patients in different age groups was uneven. The highest percentage of patients undergoing the dental plaque removal procedure occurred in the age groups of 18-29 and 30-39 years - 21% and 29% of all respondents, respectively. The lowest number of patients was found in the age group of 80–89 years (1%).There is a statistical difference in the total number of dental procedures and in each age group in favor of women in each group, except the 60-79 age group. The greatest number of dental plaque removal procedures, compared to other procedures, was performed in men aged 30–39 years. Among men, along with the increase in age up to the age of 60, the number of dental plaque removal procedures decreased by an average of 10%, a drastic decrease occurred at the age of 70-79 - only 10% of procedures were dental plaque removal procedures. Among women aged 30-59 who were patients of the clinic, the percentage of women with dental plaque removal was about 30%, only in the age group over 80 the percentage of women who underwent the procedure fell to less than 10%.CONCLUSIONS. The results of the study show that the sex and age of the inhabitants of the Łomża region are significant variables related to the procedures of removing plaque in a dental office. Observation showing a decrease in the number of these procedures with increasing age of patients and their more frequent occurrence in women generally requires detailed studies identifying the main determinants of existing relationships.