Indications for tooth extraction among elderly in India- A retrospective study

Background: A few studies have been conducted to understand the reasons for tooth extractions in adult age groups with little attention being paid to the elderly population. The present retrospective study was carried out to evaluate the indications for tooth extraction among elderly.Methodology: A total of 211 records of patients aged above 60 years were reviewed. All the reasons for tooth extraction such as dental caries, periodontitis, trauma, endo- perio lesions beyond salvaging the tooth, prosthetic reason or tooth in the line of radiation were recorded. The chi-square test was applied to check the association between tooth loss to the tabulated data collected for demographic details, oral hygiene practices and medical problems.Results: The mean age of the study subjects was 67.19±5.90. Among the study subjects 78(36.3%) were diabetic and 106 (49.3%) were hypertensive. About 59 (28%) had both diabetes and hypertension. There was no statistical significant difference between tooth loss and presence of diabetes or hypertension or both. It was concluded from the study that the primary reason for tooth loss among study subjects was dental caries. About 16 subjects (7.4%) had both dental caries and periodontal disease. Only 20 (9.47%) study subjects had retained at least 20 teeth in the oral cavity. There was statistical significant difference between gender and reason for tooth loss (p=0.02). Conclusion: It can be concluded that dental caries was the main reason for the tooth loss compared to periodontal disease. Key words: Tooth loss, Dental caries, Elderly