Proximal caries in juvenile periodontitis patients

Background: Caries is recognized as the prevalent proximal dental disease i n adolescents, while proximal bone loss is minimal to non-existent in this population. Adolescents demonstrating an inverse disease pattern, i.e., min imal caries and active periodontitis, could provide powerful clues with reg ard to both diseases, However, data are inconsistent. This study was design ed to clarify this relationship by comparing proximal caries prevalence in a juvenile periodontitis (JP) group to a matched non-periodontally diseased control group. Methods: Two groups (cases [JPs] and control patients [CPs]) were matched f or age, sex, and race and evaluated for decayed, missing, filled teeth and surfaces (DMFS) by radiographic analysis. Statistical analysis was performe d by ANOVA and Student t test. The study consisted of four phases. Phase I was based on data from a previous study that failed to include race in the analysis. Thus, the original 23 JP patients (mostly African-Americans from New York City) were rematched for race as well as sex and age with CPs from Newark, NJ. The effect of water fluoridation (found in NYC) was evaluated in Phase II by matching the 23 original CPs (mostly Caucasian from NYC) wit h 23 CPs from NJ. Since differences were seen, we rematched our original JP s from NYC with a new set of race-matched CPs from NYC (Phase ill), Finally , 13 JP patients from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jerse y (UMDNJ) were matched with CPs from NJ (Phase IV). Results: Phase I and III indicated that JP patients had significantly less proximal caries than their matched CPs (P less than or equal to0.05). Phase II confirmed the role of fluoride in caries reduction. Phase IV (NJ sample ) supported our previous data and suggested that JP patients had less proxi mal caries than CPs (P less than or equal to0.05). Conclusions: JP patients had significantly less proximal caries than their matched CPs when groups were balanced and radiographic evaluations were per formed. In-depth studies of JP patients could provide important clues about both caries and periodontal disease etiology and pathogenesis.