GINGIVAL RECESSION - INTRAORAL DISTRIBUTION AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS

THIS STUDY ASSESSES THE ROLE OF POOR ORAL HYGIENE and forceful toothbr ushing as risk factors for recession. As part of a cross-sectional roo t surface caries study, 298 subjects, 42 to 67 years of age, with at l east one exposed root surface, were examined. Since 66% of the root su rface exposure and practically all the abrasion was on buccal surfaces , the analyses focused only on the buccal surface. Analysis of varianc e on subject means for buccal recession showed both calculus and prese nce of buccal root surfaces with abrasion to be significantly associat ed with recession after adjusting for age and gender. Root surface abr asion was considered a surrogate variable for forceful brushing. An ad ditional analysis utilized means for each tooth, aggregating across su bjects. For each of the 32 tooth types mean buccal recession, percent of exposed root surfaces with abrasion (%ra), and mean debris and calc ulus scores were calculated. Partial correlation coefficients across t ooth types between recession and calculus, adjusting for abrasion, and for recession and abrasion adjusting for calculus, were 0.55. Interpr etation of the %ra as a crude measure of forceful brushing is supporte d by its strong negative correlation across tooth types, with mean deb ris (r = -0.8) and mean calculus (r = -0.7). Separate analyses on prem olars and on molars suggested that recession on premolars may be prima rily due to brushing force and on the molars may be primarily due to d ebris and calculus. The findings suggest that recession is positively associated with percent abrasion (reflecting forceful brushing) and wi th poor oral hygiene.