Common conditions of abutment teeth and their severity in subjects requesting fixed dental prostheses at Watim Dental Hospital, Rawalpindi.

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the abutments in subjects requesting for fixed dental prosthesis (FDP) and to determine the frequency of compromised coronal conditions and their severity levels. Study Design: Descriptive, Cross-sectional Study. Setting: Department of Prosthodontics at Watim Dental Hospital, Rawalpindi. Period: August 2019 to March 2020. Material & Methods: Conducted on 163 subjects. Abutments were evaluated in terms of clinical crown length, crown inclination, caries and/or fracture, type and quality of restoration. Abutments were categorized on the basis of complexity of the procedure required to make the abutment usable for fixed dental prosthesis. Arch-wise distribution of the abutment with compromised conditions and their proportion was also calculated. Results: The mean age of the participants was 39.42 + 11.56 years with male to female ratio of with 2.2:1. Maximum number of the patients had edentulous spaces located in the mandibular posterior region. Tooth no. 46 displayed the highest frequency of use as abutment while tooth no. 18, 28,31,32,42 displayed the least frequency of use as FDP abutment. About half of the abutments (47%) had compromised restoration quality. On the basis of the degree of compromise, 41.1% of the abutments were usable without further treatment or required a simple corrective procedure, 45.4% required a relatively complex procedure to make them useable while 11% had sufficient compromise to preclude their use for FPD support. Only 2.5% of abutments were classified as adequate. Conclusion: About half of the studied abutments in subjects reporting for replacement of missing teeth with FDP were found to be compromised and a substantial proportion required complex restorative treatment/re-treatment prior to be used as FDP abutments.