Periodontal awareness, health, and treatment need in dental school patients: Periodontal conditions

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate the periodontal conditions in a group of randomly selected patients scheduled for periodontal treatment in a dental school. The patients' age, sex, and responses to interview questions were used as predictors. About 64% of the lateral tooth surfaces had visible plaque after disclosure with erythrosine, and males had significantly more plaque-covered surfaces than females. All subjects had some areas showing ‘bleeding on probing’, and a total of 58% of the gingival units bled. About 99% of the subjects, 61% of the teeth, and 33% of the gingival sites had probing depths ≥4 mm, whereas 70% of the subjects, 19% of the teeth, and 8% of the gingival sites had probing depths ≥6 mm. Mean individual bone score for the ‘Ramfjord teeth’ was 5.60. Yearly dental visitors tended to keep their teeth to a greater extent than patients with a less regular treatment pattern. This is probably because irregular and emergency patients more often ask for extraction instead of restorative treatment. Since periodontal treatment usually is not offered, the periodontal conditions in the three regularity groups were not considerably different.