RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CPITN AND PERIODONTAL ATTACHMENT LOSS FINDINGS IN AN ADULT-POPULATION

This study investigates the relationship between CPITN findings and th e prevalence and severity of periodontal attachment loss in a rural Ke nyan population comprising 1131 persons aged 15-65 years. All persons were examined for calculus, gingival bleeding, pocket depths and attac hment loss levels on 4 sites of each tooth present. Recordings of blee ding, calculus and pocket depths were used to compute CPITN scores bas ed on the 10 index teeth originally proposed, and these CPITN scores w ere subsequently related to the attachment loss findings derived from the full-mouth assessment. In most cases, persons with a CPITN score l ess than or equal to 1 did not have attachment loss greater than or eq ual to 4 mm. However, among 40+ year-old persons with CPITN score 2 ov er 90% had attachment loss 4 mm and over 50% of the 50+ year-olds with CPITN score 2 had attachment loss greater than or equal to 6 mm. Less than 20% of the 15-29 year-olds with CPITN score 3 had attachment los s greater than or equal to 6 mm, and usually the attachment loss level s ranged between 0 and 3 mm. Beyond the age of 35 years over 10% of th e sextants with CPITN score 0 had attachment loss greater than or equa l to 4 mm. Below the age of 35 years more than one third of all sextan ts with CPITN score 3 had attachment loss levels less than or equal to 3 mm. Thus, the CPITN findings overestimate both prevalence and sever ity of periodontal attachment loss among the younger age groups and un derestimate these parameters among elderly subject.