Prevalence of apical periodontitis, crowned teeth and teeth with posts in a Swedish population.

A longitudinal radiological study was carried out of 200 consecutive patients in a Swedish population. The aims of the investigation were to study the prevalences of crowned teeth, pontics and posts on two occasions with an interval of 5-7 years and, furthermore, to study apical periodontitis in connection with teeth with crowns and posts to see if such treatments affected this prevalence. 417 (mean 2.1) teeth were crowned at the first examination and 529 (mean 2.6) at the second. For pontics, the corresponding figures were 93 (mean 0.5) and 141 (mean 0.7). Crowns and pontics were more common in the upper jaw. 59.4% of the endodontically treated teeth had posts at the first examination and 64.4% at the second. 34.5% of the 255 teeth with apical periodontitis found at the first examination and 41.0% of the 268 at the second were in connection with posts. It was concluded that both crowns and pontics were common treatment procedures in the studied population. Crown therapy did not seem to impair the apical status while teeth with posts more often had apical periodontitis than other teeth and, furthermore, teeth with screw posts were lost more frequently than other teeth.