Prevalence of Tooth Agenesis in Patients Visiting a Dental College in UAE- A Retrospective Study.

Agenesis comprises of the most common developmental anomaly of the human dentition, and is seen to affect at least about 25% of the population. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of agenesis of third molars, mandibular second premolars and maxillary lateral incisors in the patients visiting a dental college in United Arab Emirates. Orthopantamograms (OPGs) of 945 dental patients aged 6 years -30 years were examined for the agenesis of teeth. Bilateral agenesis was considered and unilateral missing teeth were excluded from the study. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the percentages and frequencies were calculated using chi square test and the level of significance was considered if p value was <0.05. The prevalence of bilateral agenesis or congenitally missing teeth within the selected 945 OPGs were at 8.99%. The most common bilateral agenesis or congenitally missing teeth were the third molars (31.7%) followed by mandibular second premolar (10.5%) and maxillary lateral incisors (8.2%). The most common tooth presenting with agenesis was the third molars. The agenesis was more in the males than females and also it was more common in the mandibular arch than in the maxillary arch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]