Incidence and Association of Root Fractures After Prosthetic Treatment

Purpose: Common reasons for tooth extractions include periodontal disease, dental caries and root fracture. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of tooth loss after prosthetic treatment, particularly incidences due to root fracture, which occur frequently and are difficult to prevent.

Methods: Data were collected from consecutively selected medical records of patients taken over 3 years after their initial visit to Osaka University Dental Hospital. Collected data included (1) age and gender, (2) number of teeth at the initial visit and number of extracted teeth, (3) reasons for extraction, (4) restored with or without a post and (5) abutment of removable partial dentures (RPDs). A Chi-squared test was applied among the reasons for extraction, whether the tooth was restored with a post or not and clasped or not. A logistic regression analysis was used to determine the associations of root fracture with the patient data.

Results: This study included 101 patients (296 extracted teeth). The reasons for extraction included periodontal disease (64.6%), caries (25.3%) and root fracture (10.1%). The percentage of root fracture was significantly higher for female than male, for restored teeth with posts than without posts and for abutment of RPDs than for non-abutment teeth. Logistic regressions showed that root fractures were significantly associated with gender and abutments.

Conclusion: The most frequently stated reasons for tooth extraction after prosthetic treatment were periodontal disease and dental caries, followed by root fracture. Root fractures were significantly associated with gender and abutment teeth of RPDs.