AN ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY AND CONTRIBUTING REASONS FOR EXTRACTION OF PERMANENT TEETH GIVEN BY THE DENTIST

The aim of the present study was to collect information about primary, secondary, and tertiary reasons that dentists gave for extracting per manent teeth and to determine whether and how dentist-associated chara cteristics might influence the relative emphasis on clinical diagnosis versus non-disease considerations given as reasons. A national random sample of Norwegian dentists (n = 500) recorded reasons for tooth ext raction during a period of 2 weeks in 1988 (response rate, 70%). Nine hundred and eighty-five teeth were extracted from 692 patients. Diseas e-/condition-related diagnoses topped the list for primary and seconda ry reasons for extraction, whereas patients' wishes. economy, and esth etics came to the forefront among tertiary reasons. Logistic regressio n analysis showed that the choice between clinical diagnosis and non-d isease considerations as primary and secondary reasons for extraction was significantly but moderately influenced by variables associated wi th the dentist.