[Influence of social class on clinical reasons for tooth loss]

In order to determine the influence of social class on clinical reasons for tooth loss in Maceió, the Alagoas State capital in Northeast Brazil, a cross-sectional study was conducted of 466 adults whose ages ranged from 18 to 76 years. Socioeconomic and demographic data were collected through a questionnaire. Clinical examinations determined the reason for extracting teeth, recording the DMF-T of all patients, who were divided into social classes on the basis of the data gathered from the questionnaire: 54.1% of the subjects were female with a mean age of 33.73 +/- 13.68 years; 369 (79.2%) of them had not completed their secondary education and 385 (82.6%) had family incomes no more than four times the official minimum wage (mean 3.4 +/- 5.4). The main reason for the loss of permanent teeth was caries. The patients presented an average of 16.59 +/- 6.96 decayed, lost or filled teeth and most of them (219 - 47%) had a DMF-T of 11 to 20 teeth. A statistically significant difference was noted between reasons for tooth loss and social class (P<0.001), leading to the conclusion that social class significantly influenced clinical reasons for tooth loss.