ALVEOLAR BONE LOSS IN 5-YEAR-OLD NEW-ZEALAND CHILDREN - ITS PREVALENCE AND RELATIONSHIP TO CARIES PREVALENCE, SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS AND ETHNIC-ORIGIN

This study investigated the prevalence of alveolar bone loss (ABL) in 5-year-old New Zealand children. The relationship of bone loss with th e prevalence of caries, socio-economic status and ethnic origin was ex amined. Standardized bite-wing radiographs from 317 children were used to examine the alveolar bone in 1784 sites. Questionable bone loss (Q BL) was evident in 8.5% of the children and definite bone loss (DBL) i n 2.1%. The children with suitable radiographs had a mean dmft of 1.8 +/- 2.9 and mean dmfs of 2.7 +/- 5.0. When the children were divided i nto 3 groups having no bone loss (NBL), QBL only or DBL, analysis of v ariance on the logarithmic transformation of both the dmft and dmfs sc ores showed significant differences among the groups. Post hoc tests s howed that the means for the DBL group were significantly different fr om those of the other 2 groups for both dmft and dmfs scores. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the odds ratio for having definite alveolar bone loss was slightly increased in children with a dmft of greater-than-or-equal-to 9.