LONGITUDINAL ASSESSMENT OF EARLY-ONSET PERIODONTITIS

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE the clinical course of earl y onset periodontitis and to investigate factors which may influence i ts clinical course. For the past 15 years we have been conducting a st udy of families with early onset periodontitis, and have examined 142 localized juvenile periodontitis and 185 severe generalized early onse t periodontitis patients. In order to study the clinical course of ear ly onset periodontitis we recalled our subject population to determine their periodontal status. Forty (40) patients with localized early on set periodontitis (LJP) and 48 with generalized early onset periodonti tis (SP) were re-examined. The time since the most recent visit for LJ P patients was approximately 3 years and for SP patients almost 4 year s. LJP patients who received periodontal therapy on the average gained periodontal attachment. In contrast, LJP patients who did not receive therapy lost periodontal attachment. SP patients lost periodontal att achment regardless of whether or not they had periodontal therapy. SP patients also lost an average of one tooth during the approximately 4 years of observation. LJP patients lost very few teeth with only 4 tee th being lost in 40 patients. The results of this study suggest that l ocalized juvenile periodontitis is a stable disease in most individual s. In contrast, patients with severe generalized early onset periodont itis continued to lose both periodontal attachment and teeth.