THE INFLUENCE OF MOLAR FURCATION INVOLVEMENT AND MOBILITY ON FUTURE CLINICAL PERIODONTAL ATTACHMENT LOSS

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY was to determine the influence of furcation involvement (FI) and mobility (MO) on change in probing periodontal at tachment level (AL) on molar teeth. Twenty-four patients were selected from The University of Michigan longitudinal periodontal clinical tri al. The patients who met the entry criteria received a baseline examin ation and were treated by periodontal scaling and root planing followe d by different periodontal surgical approaches in a split-mouth design . Patients were placed on a 3-month interval for maintenance prophylax is and had yearly periodontal scorings for a period of 8 years. The sc orings included determination of AL, Fl, MO, and tooth loss (TL). Data for molar teeth from three different time periods (at entry (A) and a t 1 (B) and 8 (C) years) were analyzed. The results demonstrated that teeth with Fl were 2.54 times more likely to be lost when compared to teeth without Fl during the maintenance period. By using paired t test approach to the probing attachment level data, molars with Fl had sig nificantly more loss between times B and C but not between A and B or A and C. Teeth with increased MO demonstrated significantly more AL be tween times A and C and B and C. When the interaction between MO and F l was analyzed, teeth with both Fl and MO had significantly more attac hment loss during the maintenance period (B to C). No statistically si gnificant difference was found among the three different therapeutic a pproaches (pocket elimination, curettage, and modified Widman flap) du ring any of the time periods. From these limited data it was concluded that during periodontal treatment and maintenance, molars with Fl had a higher tendency to lose periodontal attachment and be extracted as compared to molars without furcation involvement. The inclusion of MO in the analysis suggests mobile teeth and mobile teeth with Fl are at greater risk of AL when compared to teeth without these characteristic s.