Incidence and risk factors of oroantral perforation following tooth ex- traction among Nigerian population in a tertiary hospital: a ten- year retrospective study

Oro-antral perforation (OAP) could be misdiagnosed if the incidence and risk factors are unknown and its consequence could be worrisome. We aimed to determine the incidence and risk factors of oro-antral perforations after teeth extraction. A retrospective study of forceps extracted upper posterior teeth over a ten-year period from September 2008 to November 2018 was done at our hospital in Nigeria. In univariate analysis, the predictors were age, gender, experience of surgeon, site of tooth, side of surgery, use of elevators while the outcome variable was oroantral perforations. Logistic regression was also done to determine the risk factors associated OAP. We used SPSS Version 17(SPSS Inc, Chicago, USA) to perform descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. P-Value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Out of the total 26,372 dental extractions during the ten-year period, 54 (0.2%) extraction cases (33 males, 21 females) had oro-antral perforations. Their mean age was 54.8± 10.6years (ranging from 21 to78 years). The highest incidence occurred in the sixth decade of life. Only the location of teeth had a significant association with oro-antral perforations. The location of upper first molar was (OR = 1.85, P=0.00) identified as a significant risk factor. The incidence of OAP is significantly lower in Nigerians and was 0.2% although there could be a population variability. The position of the upper first molar was a factor found to be associated and predictive of the OAP but age, gender, number of extractions per visit, side of operation and the surgeon’s experience were not. The findings will help surgeons to predict occurrence of OAP knowing its risk factors.