Severity of Extrinsic Black Stain and prevalence of Dental Caries

Background: Teeth discoloration is one of the most common problems among individuals nowadays. It can be caused by a variety of circumstances and can result in cosmetic problems as well as low self-esteem and dental caries. Hence the present was conducted to investigate the correlation between the severity of Black stains and the prevalence of caries, number of missing teeth, crowns, restorations, and Endodontically-treated teeth in adult patients at Riyadh Elm University Dental Clinics.

Materials and Methods: The study consisted of 84 participants with age ranging from 18 to 60 years, with no gender preference. The subjects included in the study had not received any professional teeth scaling and polishing at least 6 months prior to the examination. Participants with an anterior fixed partial denture or any kind of restoration anteriorly with more than two incisors crowns or more than two missing incisors for each quadrant were excluded. Clinical examination was done by the single investigator who was calibrated by practicing it on 5 patients.

Results: In the present study majority 64 (76.2%) of the participants aged between 18-32yrs, more than half 50 (59.5%) of them were male and the rest of them were female 34 (40.5%). A high percentage of subjects 34 (40.5%) were having a university level of education. Age, gender showed significant association with Intensity, extensity and composite scores of stains (p<0.05). Income was associated statistically significantly with extensity of stains (p<0.05). A correlation was found between the patient decayed teeth number and stains; however, this relation wasn’t statistically significant. The study found that endodontically treated teeth had a statistically significant link between its number increase and the extent and intensity of stains.

Conclusion: From the present study it was concluded that age and gender was statistically associated with intensity, extensity and composite scores and income also had an impact on extensity of stains. More investigation is recommended to gain more understanding of the correlations of dark stains.