PERIODONTAL-DISEASE AND TYPE-1 DIABETES-MELLITUS IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

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.