Prevalence of early loss of primary teeth in 5–10-year-old school children in Chidambaram town

INTRODUCTION: The premature loss of primary teeth may reduce arch length required for the succeeding tooth and, hence, predisposes crowding, rotation and impaction of the permanent teeth. There are only limited studies carried out about the prevalence of early loss of primary teeth. AIM: The present study was performed to evaluate the prevalence of early loss of primary teeth in school children in Chidambaram town in Tamilnadu, India. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A total of 1121 school children (561 boys and 560 girls) between 5 and 10 years of age were selected for the study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An experienced examiner performed all clinical examinations under natural light. Data including age and missing tooth was collected. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Microsoft Excel/2000 (Microsoft Office XP) data spreadsheet was used and later exported to the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) for Windows (version 10.0). Descriptive statistics was applied and, from the results, chi-square tests were applied at a level of significance of 5% (P < 0.05). Results and Conclusions: The results showed that 16.5% of the sample had early loss of primary teeth, but no differences were observed between genders (P > 0.05). The greatest prevalence was found among the 8-year olds (5.08%), and the most commonly missing teeth were the right lower primary first molars (16.82%). It can be concluded that the prevalence of early loss was high and that the lower primary molars were the most commonly missing teeth in the present study