Distribution of acid-etched, fixed, and removable prostheses in dental patients

This report describes the pattern of tooth replacement for a random sample of adult dental patients in a major urban area in the northeastern United States. The data were collected by using a practitioner-based epidemiologic monitoring system that had been established with the local dental society. Nearly 90% of the randomly selected dentists collected the data on all adult patients seen during a 1-week period. The 2069 patients examined were predominantly regular users of dental care with a relatively even distribution across 10-year age groups. There was a slight preponderance of women in the sample (55%). There were no significant differences between men and women in terms of mean numbers of missing teeth. Overall, 92% were dentulous in both arches, 6% were edentulous in one arch, and 2% were totally edentulous. When the space was available for replacement, molars and premolars showed the lowest percentages of replacement in both arches for each age group. Overall, 14.4% of the replaced teeth were replaced by a fixed partial denture, of which acid-etched fixed partial dentures contributed 0.6% and conventional fixed partial dentures the remaining 13.8%. Removable prostheses replaced 85.6% of the missing teeth. The proportion of fixed replacements was highest in the youngest age groups and the proportion of removable replacements was dominating in the older age groups. Acid-etched fixed partial dentures were found most frequently in the youngest and oldest age groups.