Prevalence of complete edentulism among Udaipur population of India

ObjectiveTo study the prevalence of complete edentulism among rural and urban population of Udaipur district of Rajasthan in relation to age and gender.Materials and methodsA cross-sectional questionnaire based study was conducted among 524 completely edentulous subjects who reported for the first time for a complete denture treatment, to the Department of Prosthodontics, Darshan Dental College and Hospital, Udaipur were selected over a period of 1 year.ResultsThe collected data were analyzed statistically using the chi-square test at the significance level of p ⩽ 0.05. Chi square test is used to evaluate the statistical significance of differences in frequencies between subgroups using spss software nu 10. The following results were obtained, according to gender, 323 subjects were male and 201 subjects were female. According to region, out of 323 male subjects, 169 subjects were from rural region and 154 subjects were from urban region. Edentulous males and females were found maximum from rural and urban region, respectively. More male subjects were present in group II (51–70 years) in both rural and urban regions. Female subjects were found maximum in group I (30–50 years) and group II (51–70 years) in rural and urban region, respectively. According to duration of complete edentulousness maximum number of male subjects were found edentulous in category of up to 6 months and 6 months–1 year in rural and urban region, respectively as compared to female subjects which were found edentulous in category of 6 months–1 year and up to 6 months in rural and urban region, respectively. Periodontal disease was the main cause of edentulism both in male and female subjects of rural and urban region.ConclusionsPeriodontal disease can be prevented by stopping the habit of smoking and maintaining proper oral hygiene by giving the instructions of brushing twice daily and visiting to the dentists every 6 months so the prevalence of complete edentulousness may be reduced.