Factores de riesgo de la atrición dental severa: un estudio de casos y controles

Objective: to identify the risk factors of severe dental attrition in patients who attended public and private dental care institutions in the city of Cuenca-Ecuador. Materials and methods: were analyzed 237 adult patients, 79 cases, with dental attrition grades 2, 3 and 4 according to the Smith and Knight index and 158 controls with attrition grades 0 and 1. A clinical and photographic examination was carried out to determine the relationship between dental attrition and factors such as age, sex, origin, number of residual teeth, salivary pH and bruxism. Results: after a bivariate analysis, it was evident that patients older than 25 years (OR= 2,47; IC= 1,41 – 4,35; X2= 10,21; p= 0,001), with less than 20 teeth in the mouth ((OR= 4,95; IC= 1,47 – 16,62; X2= 7,97; p= 0,004 ) and with bruxism (OR= 2,64; IC= 1,45 – 4,81; X2= 10,49; p= 0,001) are more likely to have severe tooth attrition. After a binary logistic regression this relationship was confirmed: patients older than 25 years (OR= 2,03; IC= 1,08 – 3,818) with less than 20 teeth in the mouth (OR= 3,90; IC= 1,07 – 14,19) and with bruxism (OR= 3,22; IC= 1,70 – 6,10), however a very low predictive capacity of the adjusted variables was observed according to R-square of Cox and Snell (0.123) and Nagelkerke’s R-square (0.172). Conclusions: advanced age, minor quantity of teeth in mouth and bruxism increased the possibility of presenting dental severe attrition in the analyzed patients. While the masculine sex, the rural origin and the salivary critical pH (less than 6) do not behave as factors of risk.