Prevalence of Primary Tooth Extraction and Its Associated Factors Among Under-Five-Year-Old Children in Debre Tabor Town, North-Central Ethiopia: Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: In Ethiopia, primary tooth extraction is a process of pulling out of an infant’s healthy primary teeth by traditional healers or family members. Traditional healers use unsterile equipment to perform teeth extraction blindly, as a result, the child is prone to different life-threatening complications such as anemia and infectious blood-borne diseases. Despite all of these consequences, it is one of the neglected health problems, especially for developing countries. Thus, this study aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of primary tooth extraction among under-five year’s children in Debre Tabor Town, Northcentral Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 370 participants, from March 2020 to April 2020 in Debre Tabor town. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select study participants. The data were collected by using a semi-structured pretested questionnaire via face-to-face interviews. The data was exported to SPSS version 20 software for analysis. Both binary and multiple logistic regression have been used to observe the association between the outcome variable with each independent variable. Finally, a 95% confidence interval was computed and variables with P-value ≤0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The prevalence of primary teeth extraction among under-five-year children in Debre Tabor town was found to be 11.1% [95% CI: 7.8–14.2]. Being able to read and write in educational status [AOR: 3.97 (1.20–13.09)], having a mother caregiver [AOR: 0.35 (0.15–0.82)], having poor awareness [AOR: 6.15 (1.56–27.56)], and having a previous history of using traditional medicines [AOR: 6.65 (3.09–14.34)] were significantly associated with primary tooth extraction. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of primary tooth extraction was found to be high. Educational status, caregiver of the child, level of awareness, and previous history of using traditional medicines were factors associated with primary tooth extraction.