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

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

Masticatory efficiency of shortened dental arch subjects with removable partial denture: A comparative study.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to compare the masticatory efficiency in subjects with shortened dental arch (SDA) before and after restoration with removable partial denture (RPD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective study carried out on 36 consecutive patients. The subjects were asked to chew 5 g of a measured portion of fresh raw carrot for 20 specified numbers of strokes. The raw carrot was recovered into a cup and strained through a standard mesh sieve of 5 mm by 1 mm, it was air dried for 30 min and weighed with FEM digital series weighing scale. The masticatory performance ratio was then determined. RESULT: The age range of the subjects was 34-64 years with the mean age being 52.2 ± 8.2 years. The difference between the total masticatory performance score at the post- and pre-treatment phases was statistically significant (P = 0.001). The improvement in masticatory performance was marked among the younger age groups (P = 0.001), unilateral free end saddle subjects (P = 0.001), and among the male gender (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Masticatory performance improved with the provision of RPD. However, the improvement was marked among the younger age groups, unilateral free end saddle subjects, and the male gender; thereby supporting the need for RPDs in patients with SDA.