Mortality trends of deciduous and permanent teeth in a suburban Nigerian population

ABSTRACT

A prospective study was undertaken at the children's clinic of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital; Ile-Ife; to determine the pattern of tooth loss among 623 suburban Nigerian children. The range of the children was between one and a half to 15 years with a mean and standard deviation of 9.9 and 3.7 years respectively. Most of the teeth were lost in the permanent dentition and mixed dentition stages with 43.2 and 42.7 per cent respectively. There was no statistical significant difference in both sexes of various age group. Dental caries and necrotising ulcerative gingivitis were the most common causes of tooth mortality