RÉSUMÉ
Many a times, a situation arises where the dentist/ prosthodontist has to make a decision of extracting periodontically weakened teeth before making a final treatment plan for rehabilitating the patient. The purpose of this study is to understand the different criteria followed by dentists to indicate teeth with periodontitis for extraction. A questionnaire was formatted and distributed to 200 dentists in colleges and private clinics. The criteria for evaluation included a) tooth mobility b) loss of tooth attachment ( c) furcation involvement (d) perio- endo lesions (e) referral to a periodontist for evaluation (f) radiographic bone loss greater than 50% (g) socio- economic status of the patient ( h) prosthodontic planning. It was found that the most commonly used criteria was the presence of mobility (41%) followed by severity of bone loss (24.5%) and radiographic evaluation of bone loss (22.1%). The study pointed out the variability of the criteria of different operators and the need for combined treatment planning and prognosis from multi specialities i,e periodontics, prosthodontics and endodontics.