Trends and Attitude of Edentate Patients towards Conventional and Implant Rehabilitative Therapies: An Indian Outlook

Sir,

Teeth play a vital role in the maintenance of a positive self-image and outlook that is why event of loss of teeth results in considerable disabilities, which can intensely interrupt social activities and quality of life. World Health Organization has clearly reported that “people rarely visit the dentist and only in the event of pain, as oral rehabilitation is restricted to the necessity.”^[1] Complete edentulism is the end result of a multifactorial process involving biological factors and patient-related factors. It is the major problem in the developing countries and is widely spread in the current population although the prevalence is declining and incidence of tooth loss is decreasing in the developed nations like India.^[2,3] The overall rate of total edentulism is said to be increasing in developing countries chiefly due to the high prevalence of periodontal diseases and caries. This relative non-homogeneous allocation and prevalence of complete edentulism between developed and less developed countries is frequently associated with interrelated interaction between cultural, individual, attitude, behavior, dental attendance, etiopathogenesis of edentulism, access to care and socio-economic factors.