Partial- or full-mouth approaches to assessing the prevalence of and risk factors for periodontal disease in young adults

Authors

W. Murray Thomson
Sheila M. Williams

Year of Publication

2002

Source

Journal of Periodontology, 73(9), 1010-4

Publication Type

Journal article (peer reviewed)

Publication Status

Completed

Abstract

This study uses a random sample of 25- and 26-year-olds who were periodontally examined at 3 sites per tooth in all 4 quadrants. The analysis obtained full-mouth prevalence estimates for gingival recession, probing depth, and combined attachment loss. The half-mouth analyses took 3 forms: comparisons from the left and right sides; quadrants 1 and 3 (upper right and lower left) and quadrants 2 and 4 (upper left and lower right) were compared; quadrants 1 and 3 were analysed for study participants whose identification number was odd, and quadrants 2 and 4 were analysed for the remainder. The utility of the half-mouth and full-mouth approaches in analytical epidemiology was examined by estimating the strength of the association between periodontitis prevalence and smoking, male gender, and episodic use of dental care. The difference in prevalence estimates obtained from the different methods was considerably greater for gingival recession than for probing depth and combined attachment loss. The authors conclude that, wherever possible, full-mouth data should be collected for descriptive epidemiological studies of periodontal disease, but where resource and time constraints mean that half-mouth examinations must be used, analytical studies of periodontitis should not be unduly affected by the loss of information. However, where the primary focus is on gingival recession, the full-mouth design should be used in order to capture all relevant information.

Type of Study

Comparative study, Quantitative, Cross-sectional