Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Retrospective assessment of periapical health in relation to sex, age and quality of root-canal treatment among adult patients of the Institute of Dentistry in Lódź. Orthopantomograms of 439 subjects were assessed considering the prevalence of endodontic treatment, technical quality of root-canal fillings and the state of periapical tissues. The assessment of orthopantomograms of 174 (39.6%) men and 265 (60.4%) women was carried out. A significant increase (p=0.016) in the mean number of endodontically treated teeth according to age (range from 1.4 in subjects under the age of 20 to 3.4 in those aged 70 years and over) and the mean number of teeth with periapical pathosis (from 0.9 to 2.4, respectively) (p=0.020) was observed. Of 10054 radiographically examined teeth 9.7% was treated endodontically, whereas, 5.5% exhibited periapical pathosis. The percentage of teeth with periapical lesions was significantly higher (p=0.015) in men (6.2%) as compared to women (5.0%). Periapical radiolucency occurred significantly more often (p=0.0001) in endodontically treated teeth (36.4% of cases) than in those with untreated root canals (2.1%). Teeth with inadequately filled root canals significantly more often revealed the presence of periapical pathosis (49.6%) in comparison to teeth with adequately filled root canals (4.2%). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of endodontic treatment and apical periodontitis increases with age. The prevalence of apical periodontitis depends on sex - periapical lesions were more often found in men. The quality of endodontic treatment significantly affects periapical health.