Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of periodontal disease and the relationship between the subjective periodontal symptoms and the actual periodontal condition in Japanese teenagers.
The examination was carried out in two parts. In tht first, a questionnaire concerning periodontal disease was conducted on 4, 292 junior and senior high school students (12 to 18 year of age) living in Kawagoe, Japan. The quetionnaire mainly inquired into typical periodontal subjective symptoms. Secondly, pocket depth was measured by the circumferential method on those 1, 333 individuals who had one or more subjective periodontal symptoms.
The following results were obtained:
1. Of those students examined for pocket depth 10.0% showed a depth of 4mm or greater. Whereas, this percentage is only 3.1 for the general population in this age range.
2. With respect to the relationship between the frequency of subjects who had periodontal pockets 4 mm or deeper and their age, the frequency decreased with increasing age. And males had a higher frequency of deeper pockets than females.
3. The subjective symptom of the highest frequency was gingival bleeding during tooth brushing (17.8%), and the second was food impaction (16.7 %).
4. Students examined for pocket depth were divided into two groups, one having periodontal pockets 4mm or deeper, and the other less than 4mm. The results of questionnaire for the two groups were compared.
There was a significant difference between two groups in terms of gingival swelling, gingival bleeding on tooth brushing, feeling of malaise in the mouth, foul breath, and diagnosis of periodontal dise-ase by a dentist. The group with a periodontal pocket 4mm or deeper showed a higher frequency for each of the above items. Whereas regarding the symptoms of tooth mobility showed the inverse result. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of food impaction.
5. Significantly, the frequency of subjects diagnosed by a dentist as having periodontal disease increased with increasing age, but that of subjects who felt malaise of the mouth and had foul breath decrease with increasing age.
