M. Pinson et al., PERIODONTAL-DISEASE AND TYPE-1 DIABETES-MELLITUS IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS, Journal of clinical periodontology, 22(2), 1995, pp. 118-123
This study compared the periodontal status of a juvenile diabetic stud
y group with that of a non-diabetic control group similar in age and s
ex. The study group consisted of 26 type I diabetic patients with an a
verage age of 13.42 years and 24 control subjects of similar age. The
diabetic subjects were evaluated with glycosylated hemoglobin (GHb) to
obtain a measure of diabetic control. Clinical periodontal evaluation
s were performed for all teeth in each subject, and consisted of the p
laque index, gingival fluid flow, gingival index, probing depths, clin
ical attachment levels, recession. and bleeding on probing. Analysis o
f the data demonstrated no statistically significant differences in th
e overall means for the 2 groups for average attachment loss, probing
depths, recession, gingival index, plaque index, gingival fluid flow,
or bleeding on probing. There was no significant association between t
he level of control of diabetes (GHb) and clinical variables. However,
comparisons based on site-specific measurements showed the gingival i
ndex to be somewhat higher among the diabetics (p=0.0002), and examina
tion of interaction effect plots showed the diabetic group to have hig
her average gingival index for most teeth and higher or the same plaqu
e index levels on all teeth relative to controls. Thus, a young study
population with type I diabetes mellitus was found to have significant
ly increased severity of inflammatory gingival disease compared to con
trols of similar age.