Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of congenitally missing teeth in a population of 18-year old Israeli army recruits.
Patients and methods: The study population consisted of 226 out of 280 random 18-year-old Israeli army male recruits. The panoramic radiographs of those who fitted the criteria were examined by two dentists. The absence of permanent teeth in those radiographs was recorded.
Results: The prevalence of tooth agenesis (including the third molars) was 43.8%. The prevalence of tooth agenesis excluding the third molars was 5.3%. There were 11 subjects (4.2%) with a missing lower 2nd pre-molar, 3 subjects (1.1%) presented congenitally missing maxillary lateral incisors. As for the third molars, 101 subjects (5.83%) presented hypodontia of at least one third molar. Hypodontia of lower third molar was more common than hypodontia of upper third (22.1% and 16.4% respectively). 20 subjects (7.6%) presented bilateral mandibular missing third molars, 13 (4.9%) presented bilateral maxillary missing third molars and nine (3.4%) presented combined bilateral maxillary and mandibular missing third molars.
Conclusion: The prevalence of tooth agenesis in Israeli army recruits was found within the wide range of reported similar data in the literature with some unique characteristics to this population.