ASSESSMENT OF ALVEOLAR BONE LEVELS FROM INTRAORAL RADIOGRAPHS IN SUBJECTS BETWEEN AGES 15 AND 94 YEARS SEEKING DENTAL-CARE

Studies have shown that <20% of the US population has periodontal dise ase. Studies of radiographs have shown that alveolar bone loss increas es with age. Bone loss assessed from intraoral radiographs describing 10,282 teeth from 416 subjects seeking dental care during a 3 month pe riod at the University of Washington were studied. The mean age of the subjects was 47.2 years (SD+/-15.2). The youngest subjects (15-24) ha d on average 29.6 teeth (SD+/-2.2) and the oldest subjects (75-94) 19. 3 teeth (SD+/-6.6). This difference was statistically significant (F=1 6.57, p<0.001). No association was found between alveolar bone loss (C EJ-ABC), and TMD symptoms. Smoking was significantly associated with b oth general bone loss (CEI-ABC) (chi(2)=114.9, p<0.0001), and vertical bone defects (angular) (chi(2)=101.8, p<0.0001). In this study popula tion (15-94 years), alveolar bone loss progressed as defined by the sl ope (beta=0.29) between age 15-44, but das almost fiat from age 50 yea rs (beta=0.04). The data suggested an overall rate of alveolar bone lo ss of 0.02 mm per year. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed t hat smoking was the primary factor in bone loss (t=7.7, p<0.0001), fol lowed by age (t=7.0, p<0.001) and gender (t=3.0, p<0.01). TMD symptoms could not explain the presence and severity of horizontal or vertical defects. If the CEJ-ABC distance above the mean plus 2x the SD was us ed as the cutoff value to define abnormal bone levels, 10.9% of the yo unger (15-45 years), and 10.7% of the older subjects (50-94) had signi ficant alveolar bone loss. 73.9% of the younger and 100% of the older subjects with such extent of alveolar bone loss were smokers.