Partial edentulism and unmet prosthetic needs amongst young adult Nigeria.

Introduction: Treatment options for missing tooth/teeth which are mostly commonly caused dental caries, periodontitis and trauma include partial dentures, bridge and implant. In developing countries, missing tooth/teeth replacement constitutes a high unmet dental need. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of partial edentulism and prosthetic unmet dental needs among young adults in Nigeria.

Materials and methods: A total of 244 medical students of college of medicine were recruited and studied using interviewer administered questionnaire which elicited information on sociodemographic, tooth loss and replacement. Data was analyzed with SPSS version 16.0 statistical software for windows.

Results: There were 98 males (40.2%) and 146 females (59.8%). A total of 35 participants out of the 244 studied participants had missing tooth/teeth giving a prevalence of 14.3%. The major reason of tooth loss was caries (48.6%). The upper left (16.7%) and right (16.7%) had the highest tooth mortality. Of the 35 participants with missing teeth, 4 (11.4%) of had replacement while 31 (88.6%) did not have any form of replacement. The teeth replaced were upper right, left anterior (75%) and upper right posterior (25%). Reasons for non-replacement were not being bothered--14 (45.2%), ignorance of replacement therapy-- 7 (22.6%), misinformation--1 (3.2%) and lack of money--2 (6.5%). Those that replaced 4/42 (9.5%) did so with removable partial dentures (100%). The majority that replaced were females 3/4 (75%). Half (50%) of those that replaced were satisfied and the reasons for non-satisfaction were pain from denture and unnatural feel of denture.

Conclusion: Data from this study revealed low prevalence of tooth loss with high unmet tooth replacement needs among the participants. Tooth/teeth replacement options should be incorporated in postoperative instructions after extraction and dental awareness should be improved among medical students.