Pattern of tooth loss in a selected population in Greece

The pattern of tooth loss with age for individual teeth was examined in a selected population. The survey covered patients attending the Dental School of Athens University. Tooth loss increased steadily with age and was higher for the periodontitis than the gingivitis group. Mortality of individual teeth was analyzed for each type of tooth within the maxillary pair and within the mandibular pair and no statistical significance was found. The statistically highly significant differences in loss rates within most groups of four teeth were clearly attributable to differences between the maxilla and mandible. For the permanent second molars differences in loss were close to the significance level while for the first molars the difference was statistically highly significant. A statistically significant difference was found between losses of the four second premolars while highly significantly differences were noticed between first premolars. Mortality for canines was low, but differences in losses were highly statistically significant. The two mandibular incisors had the lowest rates of loss in our sample, difference in loss between maxillary and mandibular incisors was statistically highly significant. Central incisors had a similar pattern of loss to that of lateral incisors but differences in loss rates were not statistically significant.