Abstract
The present study was carried out to assess the efficiency of the Community Periodontal Index (CPI) and Loss of Attachment (LA) as well as to evaluate periodontal disease progression for 5 years in community-dwelling elderly aged 70 years. A total of 313 selected subjects received a full mouth examination at six sites around the teeth for assessing gingival bleeding, dental calculus, periodontal pocketing, and the level of epithelial attachment. All data were modified in CPI and LA classification according to the WHO Oral Health Basic Method, 4th edition. Comparisons were made between full mouth recording and partial 10 index teeth recording to indicate the % of subjects and sextants according to each category of CPI and LA. As a result, 93.7% of subjects were diagnosed as CPI-1 or higher score by partial recording, while 97.4% were diagnosed as such by full mouth recording. The percentage of LA-1 and higher sextants by partial recording was 66.9%, as compared to 78.8% by full mouth recording. Sensitivities of CPI and LA between the two different recordings were also relatively reasonable, with 76.1% for CPI-3 and higher, and 84.9% for LA-1 and higher. The percentage of subjects with PD 6+mm increased up to 51.7%, while that for LA 9+mm was 43.2% for the five years. Our results may suggest that CPI and LA in an original 10 index teeth examination would be useful to promote a better oral health status for elderly people in monitoring periodontal disease progression.
