Abstract
It is well known that causes of permanent tooth los s are periodontal disease and dental caries. However, it is difficult to identify causes of deciduous tooth loss, because of the shedding of the deciduous teeth with growth. Clarify causes of early loss of the deciduous teeth is useful for the longterm oral health process for pedodontic patients, and for instructing the patients and their guardians. In this study,105 pedodontic patients with clear reasons for deciduous tooth extraction other than tooth exchange were selected among patients who had undergone deciduous tooth extraction at the Department of Pediatric Dentistry in the Tokyo Dental College Suidobashi Hospital since April 2000for 3 years and 3 mouths, and their age, gender, tooth types, and causes of tooth extraction were evaluated.
1. There were 172 deciduous teeth (maxillary 125 and mandibular 47 teeth).
2.52 maxillary deciduous central incisors,24 maxillary deciduous lateral incisors, and 22 maxillary deciduous first molars were frequently extracted.
3. The main reason for tooth extraction was dental caries in all tooth types in the maxilla. However, other reasons such as trauma of the deciduous central incisors, and abnormal resorption of the tooth roots of the deciduous second molars due to the ectopic eruption of the permanent first molars were noted in almost the same number of cases as dental caries. In the mandible, all the deciduous incisors in this study were extracted due to trauma, and almost all the deciduous molars were extracted due to dental caries. No extraction of the deciduous canines was performed.
4. Twenty-nine of the 105 pedodontic patients did not visit our department after tooth extraction. The ratio of patients who did not visit our department after tooth extraction was higher among patients who underwent tooth extraction due to dental caries ratio than in patients who underwent tooth extraction due to other reasons.
