Self-reported prevalence of missing teeth and unmet prosthetic treatment needs among a population of Nigerian undergraduate students

ABSTRACT

Background: Tooth loss is an indicator of the oral health status of the population. In developing countries, missing tooth/teeth replacement constitutes a high unmet dental need. Missing tooth/teeth among undergraduate student is a cause for concern. Objective: This study was designed to assess the self-reported prevalence of missing teeth and unmet prosthetic needs among university undergraduate students. Methods: Data for the study was collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 3 sections the first section sought demographic information, the second section consisted of 5 questions that tried to find out the missing teeth status of the respondents and the third section tried to find out prevalence of missing teeth and the unmet prosthetic needs of the respondents. Data obtained was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 21.0. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and counts), cross-tabulations as well as Chi square were used to analyze the data. Result: More than half (64.1%) were females while 67.3% were between 16 and21 years of age. The prevalence of missing teeth among the respondents was 38.3% with missing anterior teeth making up 56.1%. Of the respondents who had missing teeth 60.5% had a form of replacement for their missing teeth bringing the unmet prosthetic need to 39.5%. There was a statistically significant association between tooth missing and replacement status with a higher proportion (66.3%) of anterior teeth being replaced. There was no statistically significant association between missing teeth and gender, age group, marital status, faculty of study and level of study. Conclusion: The prevalence of missing teeth and unmet prosthetic need was high, highlighting the need for oral health education and increased awareness of the possible prosthetic rehabilitation procedures available for replacing missing teeth