The effects of ultrasonic scaling with oral hygiene education on the distribution of pathological pockets using CPITN diagnostic standards.

Thirty-three subjects aged 20-44 years, selected from Japanese company employees who had been given CPITN Codes of 3 or 4, received a treatment of ultrasonic scaling to investigate any changes in the distribution of pathological pockets after this treatment using CPITN diagnostic standards. A pathological pocket was defined as a pocket with a depth of 4 mm or deeper as described in the CPITN system. The results demonstrate that the number of teeth with pathological pockets was significantly reduced from 6.2 to 3.4 (45 per cent reduction) after scaling with an ultrasonic instrument requiring at most 30 minutes per subject. The reduction in pathological pockets was attributed to an improvement in shallow pockets rather than deep pockets. These results imply that as far as shallow pockets are concerned, one episode of scaling with ultrasonics is effective in reducing the extent of periodontal disease. Comparison between the number of sextants with shallow pockets before and after scaling further revealed that more improvements were observed in the subjects aged 20-29 years than in those aged 30-44 years. These results suggest that subjects aged 20-29 years with shallow pockets should be given first priority for scaling programmes in an adult population. The results also indicate that the CPITN diagnostic standards, in which the probe measures what is 'normal' and 'abnormal', is appropriate for the evaluation of periodontal status in an epidemiological study.