Background: Apical periodontitis (AP) is one of the most important prognostic factors in almost all endodontic outcome studies. The high prevalence of AP has been reported in different populations.
Aims: The aim of the present study was to investigate (a) the overall prevalence of AP among all permanent teeth, (b) the differences between root canal-treated (RCT) and non-treated teeth in association with AP, and (c) the influence of gender on AP in a Saudi Arabian population using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT).
Materials and methods: A total of 208 CBCT radiographs (including 5,504 permanent teeth) were investigated. The CBCT machine used in this study was a 3D Accuitomo 170 (Morita, Japan) with the following features: 90 kV, 5-8 mA, 17.5 s exposure time, and 0.25 mm voxel size. The radiographs of the axial, coronal, and sagittal segments of each tooth were acquired to evaluate the presence or absence of RCT teeth and AP. The data were presented as frequencies and percentages. Z test was used to analyze the differences in proportions at the significance level of P < 0.05.
Results: The overall prevalence of AP was 4.5% (264 out of 5,504 permanent teeth). AP had the highest frequencies in the mandibular and maxillary first molars (18.4 and 9.3%, respectively) with a higher prevalence in the maxillary teeth. AP was associated with endodontically treated teeth more than the untreated ones (66.3% compared with 33.7%) with a highly significant difference (P < 0.001). AP was more prevalent in females than in males but with no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05).
Conclusion: AP had a low prevalence (4.5%) in all permanent teeth and was highly associated with RCT teeth (66.3%). First molars had the highest prevalence of AP. Care must be taken when examining patient radiographs to avoid missing AP, particularly in RCT teeth.
Keywords: Apical periodontitis; CBCT; Saudi population; cross-sectional study; root canal-treated teeth.