Summary. The premature loss of temporary teeth is basically important during growing and development periods, by the negative effects it induces, by its localization at the level of the dental arches and also by its implications in the either existing or subsequent intermaxillary relationships.
Scope of the study: recording the frequency of premature loss of temporary teeth in pre-school children, and localization of such losses at the level of temporary/mixed dental arches, and the lost dental pattern, in the groups of age under investigation.
Materials and method. The study involved clinical evaluation of a group of 274 children from 3 kindergardens in Iasi, divided into 4 groups of age, between 4-5 and up to 7-8 years, as well as on sexes.
Results and discussion. The study revealed that the premature loss of temporary teeth is more frequently occurring in boys and not in girls, being predominant on the lower arch instead on the upper one, more frequent on the lateral and not on the frontal arch, regardless of the age group considered, while the premature loss of temporary teeth is progressively increasing with the childs age, so that, at ages older than 6 years, more than 50% of the children have lost one or several temporary teeth.
Conclusions. The prevalence of the premature loss of temporary teeth in pre-school children supports the slighlty higher frequency of the number of dental arches with transitory edentations, as well as the importance of localizing the loss at the level of the dental arches (lower/upper, lateral/frontal) and, especially, of the prematurely lost dental pattern (lower prime/secondary molars).