National survey of periodontal status and treatment need among Nigerians.

A national pathfinder survey of periodontal conditions and treatment needs was carried out among 4631 male and female Nigerians drawn from all four Primary Health Care (PHC) Administrative zones. The survey was conducted according to WHO Basic Methods. Differences between PHC zones, and rural and urban communities were examined. The Chi-Square test was used to analyse differences in frequencies between groups. The percentage of healthy subjects was very small, nearly zero, in all age groups and in all zones. A majority of subjects had calculus. The prevalence of shallow and deep pockets were relatively high; prevalence of '4 or 5mm pockets' increased from 39 per cent among 15 year olds to 57 per cent among those 25-29 years before declining to 17 per cent among those 65 years of age and older. Prevalence of deep pockets increased steadily with age. Few sextants had '4 or 5mm pockets' or deep pockets. There were also very few edentulous sextants. Differences between the PHC zones, and rural/urban areas were mainly limited to number of sextants with '4 or 5mm pockets'. Virtually all subjects needed one form of periodontal treatment as assessed by the CPITN.