The prevalence and intraoral distribution of periodontal attachment loss in a birth cohort of 26-year-olds

Background: Most research efforts in periodontal epidemiology have focused on middle-aged or older people, giving a picture of disease occurrence at a relatively late stage in the natural history of the condition. There is a paucity of comprehensive descriptive data from younger age groups. Understa nding the epidemiology and clinical presentation of the condition earlier i n the disease course may enable more appropriate interventions. Methods: The aim of this study was to describe the occurrence of gingival r ecession, probing depth, periodontal attachment loss (AL), and gingivitis a mong participants at age 26 in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Dev elopment Study. Gingival recession and probing depth were measured at 3 sit es per tooth in 2 randomly selected contralateral quadrants. Results: At age 26, 980 (96.2%) of the surviving cohort participated and pe riodontal data were available for 914 individuals. Over 70% of the sample h ad one or more teeth with greater than or equal to1 mm of gingival recessio n and it was observed at over 20% of midbuccal sites. Over 15% had 1 or mor e sites with probing depths of greater than or equal to4 mm and nearly 20% had 1 or more sites with greater than or equal to4 mm of AL. The extent of gingival recession was greatest for midbuccal sites on mandibular premolars , followed by midbuccal sites on maxillary premolars and mandibular molars, In the mandible, more distolingual sites had probing depths of greater tha n or equal to4 mm, but a higher percentage of mesiobuccal sites was affecte d in the maxilla, and molars were the most affected, followed by premolars, incisors, and canines. Bleeding after probing was more extensive in the ma ndible than in the maxilla. Conclusions: Periodontal disease appears to be well-established among a sma ll proportion of young adults. The prevalence of gingival recession was hig her than expected, with clear differences by site. Pocketing and AL were mo re prevalent in mesiobuccal and distolingual sites than the buccal sites, w ith differences between the jaws.