Purpose : To determine the prevalence of comorbidities in patients older than 35 years that may affect the dental extraction.

Patient and methods : A total of 3986 patients visited the oral surgery OPD of JMDC from December 2010 to October 2011. The history charts of 1867 patients aged 35 years and above were included in the study. The patient’s medical and drug history was recorded to find out the prevalence of different medical problems.

Results : From a total of 1867 patients, 436 patients (23.4%) were afflicted with medically compromised conditions. The mean age ± SD = 39.6 ± 10.02 years. There were 898 male patients (48.1%) and 969 female patients (51.9%). The most common disease category was hypertension (12.6%) followed by diabetes (6.74%), peptic ulcer (2.57%) and ischemic heart disease (0.85%).

Conclusion : Dental treatment may sometimes be modified according to the medical constraints of the patient, and on occasion, consultation with the medical consultant may be needed. Proper medical history taking is the key to safe patient management.

Key words : dental extraction; hypertension; diabetes mellitus; cardiovascular diseases