Periodontal conditions in adult Southern Chinese

Periodontal diseases remain a concern in adult populations, but there have been no systematic descriptions of periodontal conditions, which have inclu ded periodontal attachment loss, among Southern Chinese. The main aim of th is report is to describe the periodontal conditions in adult Chinese and to investigate factors that may have influenced periodontal attachment loss. Subjects were recruited from urban and rural survey sites throughout Guangd ong. In total, 1572 35- to 44-year-old subjects and 1286 65- to 74-year-old subjects completed a structured interview and underwent a periodontal exam ination, which included the Community Periodontal Index (CPI) and periodont al Attachment Loss (ALoss) recordings. Calculus was found as the highest CP I score in 61-68% of the 35- to 44-year-old subjects and in 54-57% of the 6 5- to 74-year-olds. Shallow pockets were found as the highest CPI score in about one-third of both the urban and the rural subjects in both age groups , and deep pockets in 3-7% of the subjects. ALoss was more prevalent than p ockets in both age groups. On the basis of the ALoss recordings, about one- third of the subjects in both age groups were categorized as exhibiting con siderable ALoss for their age. In both age groups, logistic regression anal ysis indicated that being male, wearing partial dentures, and reporting les s frequent toothbrushing were found to be associated with considerable ALos s.