Dentists' perception of risks for molars without antagonists. A questionnaire study of dentists in Sweden

The aim of this questionnaire study was to investigate dentists' assessment of and the decision making process in a clinical situation with unopposed molar teeth. The questionnaire comprised, besides questions about the dentist's background, a presentation of a clinical situation with a 42-year old male patient who just had lost the left mandibular molars (teeth 36 and 37). A series of questions was provided with multiple choice answers regarding what most probably would occur with the unopposed maxillary molars within a 10-year period, what treatment to propose in such a situation, and indications for the proposed treatment. The questionnaire was sent to a randomly selected group of active members of the Göteborg Dental Society. Two hundred completed questionnaires were returned (response rate 72.5%). The great majority (85%) suggested that marked overeruption of the unopposed molars would occur, whereas 13% believed in minor changes. Almost half of the respondents (47%) proposed to wait and see before any treatment was started, whereas the remaining dentists wanted to perform some therapy as soon as possible or within a specified period of time. The most commonly suggested indications for treatment were risk for overeruption (79%), risk for impaired masticatory function (54%), and risk for development of TMD (50%). Differences in answers were found between female and male dentists, between specialists and general practitioners, and with respect to year of graduation. Most dentists believed that overeruption would occur in spite of the limited knowledge of what will happen to unopposed teeth.