ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate radiographically the prevalence of developmental disturbances in tooth formation in patients admitting to the Dental Faculty of Near East University of Cyprus. There have been no previously reported dental records and epidemiologic data available for this population. A retrospective study based on the examination of panoramic radiographs of 4672 patients aged 16 to 82 years between January 2007 and February 2010 was performed. Codes of International Classification for Diseases (ICD) were used for the selection and coding of disturbances in tooth formation. Rates of observation of any anomaly with respect to gender, age and alpha-thalassemia were analyzed using the Pearson chi-square test (p≤0.05). Dilaceration was the most commonly observed anomaly (26%) in this study according to the category of tooth formation disorders among dental anomalies. Hypersementosis was detected in a smaller number of radiographs. Although larger samples are required to effectively determine the complete description of disturbances in tooth formation, no dental anomalies were more commonly found in this ethnic group, compared with previously published data, which may be considered to be specific to this population according to this preliminary study.

Keywords: Alpha-thalassemia, disturbances in tooth formation, Cypriote population, panoramic radiography