Opinions of a selected population of Nigerian dental surgeons on the preferred management of unerupted maxillary canines

Abstract

Objective: To assess the survey opinions of Dental Surgeons working in one of the Nigerian Teaching Hospitals on their preferred management of unerupted maxillary canines.

Method: The setting was the Dental Centre, University College Hospital, Ibadan. The participants were 46 Dental Surgeons working within the selected Teaching Hospital. The instrument of study was a questionnaire which consisted of 10 open ended questions, for information on questionnaire, sociodemographic characteristics. Data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed and frequencies were generated.

Result: Four main types of treatment were preferred by participants: 23(54.7%) of the dental surgeons preferred alignment with orthodontic treatment to all other forms of management, 12(28.6%) preferred surgical extraction, 5 (11%) preferred transplantation and 2 (4%) preferred observation and monitoring .

Conclusion: Opinions of dental surgeons surveyed indicated that most dental surgeons would prefer orthodontic alignment of the unerupted maxillary canine above other dental treatment.