Treatments Performed on First Permanent Molars in a Sample of Lebanese Children: A Five-Year Retrospective Analysis

BACKGROUND: Dental caries remains one of the most prevalent worldwide chronic diseases and an expensive burden to healthcare services despite significant preventative measures Objective: Dental caries is a multifactorial chronic disease that occurs in early childhood and persists until adulthood. The first permanent molars (FPMs) are the earliest permanent molars to erupt what makes them vulnerable to caries among children and adolescents. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of different types of treatments performed on FPMs in 7–10-year-old Lebanese patients. Methods: In this retrospective study, a convenience sample obtained from the dental electronic health record system of 753 patients, aged between 7 and 10 years old who attended the department of Pediatric Dentistry at the Faculty of Dental Medicine–Lebanese University, between 2015 and 2019 was assessed. Preventive procedures (fissure sealants and preventive resin restorations) as well as therapeutic ones (apexogenesis, composite restoration, extraction, pulp capping, radicular treatment, pulpotomy, stainless steel crown, surgery and emergency) were investigated. Data collected was statistically analyzed using SPSS version 25.0 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp). RESULTS: The 753 patients were divided into 364 girls (48.3%) and 389 boys (51.7%). These patients underwent a total of 2145 procedures. Procedures were equally divided between therapeutic procedures and preventive ones (51.6% versus 48.4%, respectively). The most commonly performed procedure was composite restoration (41.9%), followed by fissure sealant (34.5%) and preventive resin restorations (14%). Treatments corresponded to a similar sex distribution with slightly higher male patients (53.6%). No statistical association was found between sex and procedure type (p=0.7). CONCLUSION: In the present study, therapeutic treatments prevalence is relatively high. Thus, educating the parents and teachers on the importance of FPMs would reflect in increased preventive treatments at the expense of decreased therapeutic ones.