Caries and its sequelae remain the most important cause of tooth loss throughout adult life in Scotland and, therefore, caries prevention and maintenance of restorations are of great importance at all ages.

No abstract

Differences in specialty backgrounds amongst the participants in this study affected both endodontic diagnostic and treatment decisions. Endodontists showed the most consistent agreement amongst the specialty groups.

Primary care dental teams will be involved in the long-term management of oral care for head and cancer patients. A broad understanding of the management of head and neck cancer, consequences of treatment and the need for good communication is key to good quality patient care.

lous at these time points fell from 54% to 33% to 13%. It seems likely, therefore, that the reasons for tooth loss in Scotland might have changed in the 15 years since they were first determined.In order to facilitate planning for dental health services and to develop strategies to continue the reduction in tooth loss it is important to identify the factors which have resulted in such loss.The aim of this study was to determine the current reasons for tooth extractions in Scotland and their relative importance. MethodThe Scottish Dental Practice Board was asked to provide the names and addresses of every fourth dentist on its list, stratified by health board area. The aim was to obtain a sample of 25% of Scottish general dental practitioners. Emergency only clinics were excluded. These dentists were forwarded a covering letter explaining the nature of the study, a record form and a reply paid envelope. They were asked to record permanent tooth extractions for one working week on one single form. For each patient having one or more teeth extracted, the number, type and reason for each extraction were recorded. Records were obtained only for those patients having an extraction.After an interval of 1 month a second wave of forms (with a suitably modified covering letter) was sent out to the non-respondents. After a further month all the remaining non-respondents were telephoned by one of the authors and encouraged to participate.To facilitate comparison with the 1984 study the same extraction criteria were used and are shown in Table 2. The dentists were asked to give only one reason for each tooth removed and to record each patient's age, gender and dental attendance pattern. Regular attendance was defined as attendance at the surgery in the past 2 years for routine examination. Patients attending solely for pain relief and patients attending for the first time were deemed irregular attenders. ResultsA total of 479 forms were issued. It became clear from some of the forms returned that a number of the dentists receiving the form were not eligible to complete it (13 were orthodontists or community dentists). Further, 41 forms could not be completed because the intended recipients had either left the practice or were on maternity leave or were deceased. Thus 425 forms were received by general dental practitioners. A total of 352 forms were completed and returned. This represents 73.5% of the 479 forms originally issued or an 82.8% response rate from the 425 eligible dentists who received a form. This gave a final sample of about 20% of Scotland's general dental practitioners. There are 13 health board areas in Scotland and there were no significant differences in the response rate for each health board area.All targeted dentists were contacted either by letter or telephone in the course of the study and an attempt was made to clarify the reasons for non-participation of eligible dentists. These included lack of time or lack of interest, working part time only and being on holiday.Of the 352 returned forms, 2 were co...