Incidence and cause of root fracture after prosthetic treatment

Objective:

Although numerous prostheses had been fabricated for partially edentulous patients, remaining teeth were extracted to proceed to edentulousness in most cases. Main reasons for tooth extraction were reported as dental caries and periodontal disease. Root fractures have been experienced frequently after prosthetic treatment; thus, they seem to be most difficult to prevent.

The aim of this study was to investigate the causes for tooth loss after prosthetic treatment, especially by root fracture.

Methods:

Data were collected from patient records of Osaka University Dental Hospital. Study samples were randomly selected among patients who have visited the department of prosthodontics for more than 3 years. Collected data were included as follows: 1) age and gender, 2) number of teeth at the initial visit, and for extracted teeth, 3) causes of extraction, 4) endodontically treated teeth with post or not, 5) abutment of removable partial dentures (RPDs) or not. Chi-square test and logistic regressionanalysis were used to investigate the associations between causes of root fracture and various factors with significant level at 0.05.

Results:

The study sample consisted of 101 patients aged (63-89). Eighty-four of them were undergo at least one tooth extraction and total extracted teeth were 296. Causes for extraction were periodontal disease (65%), caries (25%) and root fracture (10%).

Chi-square test showed that as a cause for extractions, root fracture was significantly frequent for teeth with post (16%) than the others (5%), and for abutment of RPDs (19%) than the others (6%). The logistic regression analysis showed that tooth fractures were significantly associated with abutment of RPDs or not, after controlling for other variables.

Conclusion:

The most frequent causes for tooth extraction after prosthetic treatment were periodontal disease and dental caries followed by root fracture. Root fractures were significantly frequent with abutment of RPDs and with post.