PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF PARTIAL EDENTATIONS IN A BATCH OF YOUNG ADULTS

Objective. The purpose of the study was to analyze the distribution of partial edentation in the young adult. Material and method. The study was conducted on a batch of young adult patients examined between 2015- 2016. Their social and demographic data odontal status were recorded for each patient. The criterion of inclusion in the study was the presence of at least one edentation. The data obtained were statistically processed in SPSS 13.0 for Windows. Results. Out of the 162 patients between 18 and 35 years of age (average age 27.01 +/- 5.09 years, the 21-22 years of age group being best represented), 147 (70 male and 77 female) showed at least one edentation. The average number of edentations per patient was 2.17 (2.03 for female patients and 2.31 for males). Most edentate breaches were of one tooth. According to Kennedy classification, most edentations were class III, followed in decrease order by class I, II and IV. There was no statistically significant difference between the presence of the edentation and the patient's gender (p = 0.788), the origin environment (p = 0.825) or the education level (p = 0.577). In 116 (78.91%) cases, decay was the main cause of edentation. Conclusions. Approximately 91% of young adults showed at least one partial edentation, the most frequent form being Kennedy III class. The high prevalence of partial edentations among young adults emphasizes the importance and the need of enforcing preventative methods or decay treatment in their early stages