Influence of gender and social factors on oral health, treatment degree and choice of dental restorative materials in patients from a dental school.
OBJECTIVE
The attitude towards oral health is influenced by gender, the level of education and the social background of the patients The aim of the present study was to determine a possible relationship of gender, the educational level and the oral health as well as the choice of dental restorations.


METHODS
A total of 2374 outpatients (age: 18-80 years) from a University dental school were assessed. Inclusion criteria were 15 remaining teeth and good general health. In addition to anamnesis data, information concerning educational level and present occupation was collected. The dental assessment included number of teeth, endodontic treatment, type of restorations (root canal fillings, restoration materials) as well as dental panoramic radiographs (OPG).


RESULTS
The female patients demonstrated a statistically significant higher percentage of restoration, more teeth with crowns and more tooth coloured fillings compared to men (P < 0.01). Patients with a higher level of education preferred more expensive restorations, whereas patients with a low level of education exhibited more inexpensive restorations. However, patients with private health insurance showed lower levels of carious lesions.


CONCLUSIONS
The examined patients showed no significant correlation between educational level and type of dental restorations but female patients had a lower number of teeth and more restoration.
Department of Operative Dentistry, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany. willersh@uni-mainz.de
B
B
Willershausen
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S
Witzel
S
S
Schuster
A
A
Kasaj
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004245:DMF Index; D015921:Dental Implants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003793:Dental Restoration, Permanent / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007347:Insurance, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D009909:Oral Health; D012390:Root Canal Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016388:Tooth Loss; D055815:Young Adult
D015921:Dental Implants