DAMPING CHARACTERISTICS OF TEETH WITH PERIODONTAL BREAKDOWN - CORRELATION OF MOBILITY METER VALUES WITH BONE AND ATTACHMENT LOSS

THE REACTION OF THE PERIODONTIUM to a defined percussive force applied in an orofacial direction can be evaluated by a mobility meter. The e lastic and viscous characteristics of the periodontium ate evaluated b y the device from the contact time between tapping head and the tooth, and reported as a numeric value called the PTV. In this study, the re lation between PTVs and bone loss (BL), clinical attachment level (CAL ), probing depth, bleeding on probing, and plaque and gingival indices were evaluated in 35 patients with moderate to advanced periodontal d isease. The effects of gender, smoking, and initial periodontal therap y on PTVs were also evaluated. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to determine whether the relationship between PTVs with CAL a nd BL was dependent on tooth type. Stepwise multiple linear regression was used to test which of the clinical parameters and bone loss would produce the highest predictive value with PTVs. The effects of gender and smoking on PTVs were examined by analysis of covariance. The chan ges in clinical parameters and PTVs before and after treatment were ev aluated by repeated analysis of variance. PTVs were found to give the highest predictive value with bone loss. However, the correlation was observed to be dependent on the location of the tooth in the jaw and t he tooth type. Interproximal and midpoint clinical attachment level me asurements showed that PTVs correlated more strongly with the overall support, rather than the support on the direction of the percussive mo vement. No pronounced differences of PTVs were noted between gender. P TVs of smokers were observed to be higher than non-smokers. There was no significant change of PTVs after the initial phase of periodontal t herapy. This cross-sectional study shows that the mobility meter evalu ation was primarily related to the amount of bone loss while being sig nificantly affected by the location of the tooth in the jaw. Factors s uch as severity of gingival and sulcular inflammation, oral hygiene, a nd gender do not seem to have an effect on PTVs.