Abstract
The validity of the self-assessment of periodontal disease using a brochure developed by Kanagawa Prefecture and Kanagawa Dental Association was evaluated involving a total of 104 subjects (78 males, 26 females) aged 22-68 years, who participated in a dental check-up in their workplace. The subjects answered 6 questions: 40 years old or older (25 points), bleeding on toothbrushing (10 points), gingival swelling (20 points), mobile teeth (10 points), difficulty in chewing hard food (20 points), and smoking (15 points), and assessed their own periodontal tissue of mandibular anterior teeth using a hand mirror and example pictures of healthy gingiva and that with gingivitis and periodontitis in the brochure. Then, a dentist examined the subjects using the Community Periodontal Index (CPI). When the subjects with CPI code ≥3 were defined as having periodontitis and the cutoff value of the total points for the 6 questions was set at 30, sensitivity and specificity were 0.611 and 0.558, respectively. The percentage agreement between self-assessment of their own periodontal tissue of mandibular anterior teeth and the CPI score of the mandibular anterior tooth area (CPI 0: healthy gingiva, 1-2: gingivitis, 3-4: periodontitis) was 67.3%. These results suggest that self-assessment using the brochure is valid and may be useful especially when a large population is screened for periodontal disease with a limited budget and time.
