SOS Teeth: Age and Sex Differences in the Prevalence of First Priority Teeth among a National Representative Sample of Young and Middle-Aged Adults

Abstract

<jats:p>Background: “SOS teeth” are defined as the first priority teeth for treatment, that have distinct cavitation reaching the pulp chamber or only root fragments are present. Objectives: To assess the prevalence and distribution of SOS teeth with regard to age and sex difference among young to middle-aged adults. Methods: This is a cross-sectional records-based study of a nationally representative sample, consisting of young to middle-aged military personnel, who attended the military dental clinics of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for one year. SOS teeth definition corresponds to code number 6 of the “Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment (CAST)” as an instrument to assess dental caries. Data pertaining to age and sex were drawn from the central demographic database and that of SOS teeth were obtained from the Dental Patient Record (DPR). Results: The study included 132,529 dental records. The prevalence of patients with SOS teeth was 9.18 % (12,146/132,323). The number of teeth that were found to be SOS teeth was 18,300, i.e., 1.5 SOS teeth per “diseased” patient (18,300/12,146). The mean number of SOS teeth per the whole study population was 0.14 ± 0.52 and the range was 0–20. The mean number of SOS teeth per patient had a statistically significant negative correlation with age (p &lt; 0.001; Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.997; 95% confidence interval: 0.997–0.998) and with male sex compared to females (p &lt; 0.001; OR = 1.029 confidence interval: 1.023–1.036). Conclusion: Assessment of first priority SOS teeth may be part of the dentist’s work-up. It provides dentists and health authorities with useful information regarding urgent dental care needs to plan dental services.</jats:p>

SOS Teeth: First Priority Teeth with Advanced Caries and Its Associations with Metabolic Syndrome among a National Representative Sample of Young and Middle-Aged Adults

“…This is part of the Dental, Oral, Medical Epidemiological (DOME), which is a cross-sectional records-based big data study [ 4 ]. Socio-demographic, dental, and medical data were collected from a nationally representative sample composed of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military personnel who have undergone dental treatment at the dental clinics of the IDF between 1 January 2015, and 1 January 2016 [ 4 ]. We have previously described in detail the data collection from these databases [ 4 ].…”

“…The teeth are the first priority for treatment, known as “teeth SOS”, and represent teeth that have a deep clinical and radiographic tooth decay that may require filling, root canal treatment, or extraction, as described in detail in our previous publication [ 4 ].…”

“…In our previous publication, we defined “SOS teeth” as the first priority teeth for treatment, that have distinct cavitation reaching the pulp chamber or only root fragments are present [ 4 ]. While the most commonly used epidemiological index for dental caries assessment [ 5 ] is the decayed missing filled surfaces/teeth (DMFS/T) index by the World Health Organization (WHO) [ 6 ], it has some limitations in dental caries assessment.…”

“…Moreover, assessment of SOS teeth, unlike the DMF, is done with X-ray imaging, which is important to identify “hidden caries” [ 9 ]. Given the global epidemic of untreated caries, assessment of first priority SOS teeth provides dentists and health authorities with useful information regarding urgent dental care needs to plan dental services [ 4 ]. In our previous publication, we assessed the prevalence and distribution by age and sex of SOS teeth among young to middle-aged adults [ 4 ].…”

“…Given the global epidemic of untreated caries, assessment of first priority SOS teeth provides dentists and health authorities with useful information regarding urgent dental care needs to plan dental services [ 4 ]. In our previous publication, we assessed the prevalence and distribution by age and sex of SOS teeth among young to middle-aged adults [ 4 ]. In the current study, we intend to further explore the association between SOS teeth and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in this population.…”