Comparing the prevalence of impacted teeth through radiographic evidence among orthodontic and general populations: A...

There is noticeable variability in reporting the prevalence of impacted teeth, which can be attributed to the variability in the age, gender, and type of populations investigated.

Panoramic radiographs were examined retrospectively for patients who attended dental clinics at King Abdulaziz Medical City and the College of Dentistry at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The sampling frame for the orthodontic population included digital records of 2998 patients randomly selected from an original 8000 patients treated from 2016 to 2022 in the orthodontic clinic. For the general population, 3002 patients were randomly selected from an original 15000 patients treated at the dental college from 2016 to 2022. A tooth was considered impacted if it failed to erupt after two years of the expected complete root formation.

The prevalence of at least a single impacted tooth was higher in the orthodontic population (13.2 %) than in the general population (11.2 %). However, this difference was not statistically significant, p = 0.103. The orthodontic population had a significantly higher prevalence of impacted #13, #11,#23,#25. In contrast, the general population had a significantly higher prevalence of all third molars impaction (p < 0.005).

Although the prevalence of at least a single tooth impaction between the orthodontic and general populations was not significantly different, the type of teeth differs. Hence, understanding the type of population investigated while reporting the prevalence of impacted teeth is critical in understanding the variability between different reports.