The prevalence and intraoral distribution of periodontal attachment loss in a birth cohort of 26-year-olds.

BACKGROUND

Most research efforts in periodontal epidemiology have focused on middle-aged or older people, giving a picture of disease occurrence at a relatively late stage in the natural history of the condition. There is a paucity of comprehensive descriptive data from younger age groups. Understanding the epidemiology and clinical presentation of the condition earlier in the disease course may enable more appropriate interventions.

METHODS

The aim of this study was to describe the occurrence of gingival recession, probing depth, periodontal attachment loss (AL), and gingivitis among participants at age 26 in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. Gingival recession and probing depth were measured at 3 sites per tooth in 2 randomly selected contralateral quadrants.

RESULTS

At age 26, 980 (96.2%) of the surviving cohort participated and periodontal data were available for 914 individuals. Over 70% of the sample had one or more teeth with > or = 1 mm of gingival recession and it was observed at over 20% of midbuccal sites. Over 15% had 1 or more sites with probing depths of > or = 4 mm and nearly 20% had 1 or more sites with > or = 4 mm of AL. The extent of gingival recession was greatest for midbuccal sites on mandibular premolars, followed by midbuccal sites on maxillary premolars and mandibular molars. In the mandible, more distolingual sites had probing depths of > or = 4 mm, but a higher percentage of mesiobuccal sites was affected in the maxilla, and molars were the most affected, followed by premolars, incisors, and canines. Bleeding after probing was more extensive in the mandible than in the maxilla.

CONCLUSIONS

Periodontal disease appears to be well-established among a small proportion of young adults. The prevalence of gingival recession was higher than expected, with clear differences by site. Pocketing and AL were more prevalent in mesiobuccal and distolingual sites than the buccal sites, with differences between the jaws.