CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DESTRUCTIVE PERIODONTITIS IN A RISK GROUPOF SWEDISH URBAN ADULTS

An initial screening investigation of 1681 Swedish urban adults aged 3 1-40 years with untreated periodontitis showed that 17.2% (289) had at least one site with probing depth greater than or equal to 5 mm. The 289 subjects were offered a complete clinical examination and treatmen t. 144 subjects, 85 men and 59 women, agreed to participate and 145 we re non-responding subjects and used as a drop out sample. The results from the screening data showed that the attendants had poorer oral hyg iene status and more severe periodontitis than the drop out subjects. The present report describes clinical data of this representative samp le with adult periodontitis. Clinical indices were recorded and bone h eight (BH%) for all teeth was measured with a computer digitizing syst em. In the 144 attendants, Plaque Index was >1 in 56.2%, Calculus Inde x was >1 in 57.0%, Gingival Index was >1 in 97.2% and bleeding on prob ing was found in 89.1% of the sites. 11.1% of the subjects had 1-3 tee th with probing depth greater than or equal to 5 mm, 59.0% 4-10 teeth, 25.7% 11-20 teeth and 4.2% >20 teeth. 47.9% of the subjects had mean BH% less than 80. 45.1% of the subjects had at least one site with an intrabony defect, of which 20% had 3-4 sites and 27.7% greater than or equal to 5 sites. It is concluded that advanced generalized periodont itis exists in a limited number of 31-40 year-olds in Sweden. Specific risk factors may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease.