Evaluation of presence of proximal contacts on recently inserted posterior crowns in different health sectors in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: For the successful outcome of the rehabilitation of the teeth with crown, the proximal contact points play a significant role hence the aim of the present study was to evaluate the presence of proximal contacts on recently inserted crowns in posterior teeth. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The cross-sectional study was conducted on recently inserted posterior crowns. Clinical assessment of proximal contact points on crowns was made with dental floss, the floss was wrapped around the index fingers of both hands and was passed through the crowns mesial and distal contact points and was categorized as acceptable, open contact points, and tight contact points. RESULTS: In the present study 401 crowns were examined to assess proximal contacts on 788 proximal surfaces. It was found that 522 (66.2%) crowns were in normal proximal contact, 144 (18.3%) showed open proximal contacts, 122 (15.5%) showed tight proximal contacts. CONCLUSION: Regarding the assessment of proximal contacts, the study showed that a significant number of crowns had open or tight proximal contacts. Specialists and residents were able to perform better in providing the optimum proximal contacts.