Prevalence of Children Undergoing Orthodontic Extraction below 18 Years of Age: A Retrospective Study

Author(s):

Nor Masitah Mohamed Shukri, Jessy P* and Arthi Balasubramaniam

Tooth extraction in orthodontics is well indicated in crowded dentition in order to gain deficient space for aligning the teeth in the correct functional position. Crowding or proclined teeth demand concerns during orthodontic treatment, which includes the elective selection of removing first or second premolars. The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of children undergoing orthodontic extraction below 18 years of age. Data collection was done in a private dental university setting. Out of 1500 patients, 375 orthodontic patient records were selected by reviewing the case sheets. The following parameters; age, gender and presence or absence of orthodontic extraction were gathered and obtained data entered in MS excel, tabulated and statistically analyzed using SPSS version 23. A total of 375 patients below 18 years of age had undergone orthodontic treatment. 23.3% of them underwent therapeutic extraction prior to the orthodontic treatment and the remaining 76.8% were not. Females (66.7%) had a higher proportion of having orthodontic extraction than male (33.3%). The common age group seen in patients with orthodontic extraction was 15-18 years and both upper and lower arches were preferred the most for extraction. Statistically significant differences between gender and orthodontic treatment showed a higher proportion of female patients were associated with orthodontic extraction. Within the limits of this study, the high prevalence of orthodontic extraction exhibits in females within the age group of 15-18 years.