PATTERN OF TOOTH LOSS AMONG OUTDOOR PATIENTS

Tooth loss is a process in which one or more teeth come loose and fall out. Tooth loss is normal for deciduous teeth (baby teeth), when they are replaced by a person's adult teeth. Otherwise, losing teeth is undesirable and is the result of injury or disease, such as dental avulsion, tooth decay, and gum disease. The cross-sectional study was conducted among outdoor patients in a tertiary care hospital. A total of 87 patients were enrolled in this study. The basic demographic data i.e. name, age, gender, disease duration, brief history, reasons for tooth loss were noted on a predefined proforma. All the data was entered and analyzed with SPSS Ver. 22.0. There were 38 male and 49 female patients. The mean age of the patients was 36.45±3.78 years. The mean duration of disease was 1.23±0.43 years. The main reasons of tooth loss (extraction) were dental caries, periodontal disease and trauma. The tendency was greater in patients with younger age i.e. between the ages of 20 and 30 years