Abstract
A variety of clinical parameters are now used in diagnostic examination for periodontal disease. Some reports, however, have pointed out that the parameters used contain several problems concerning reproducibility and objectivity. The purpose of the present study was to determine the degree of correlation between parameters. The subjects were 27 first visit patients with adult periodontitis (16 women and 11 men), whose mean age was 45.1 years with a range of 18-62 years. One hundred forty-seven different sites with radiographic evidence of alveolar bone loss were randomly selected. The clinical parameters used in this study were Plaque Index (PH), GCF volume, probing depth (PD), attachment level (AL), Gingival Index (GI) and tooth mobility (Mo). All measurements were made by one of the authors.
The results obtained were as follows:
1. The relationships between the clinical parameters were all statistically significant at P< 0.01. The correlation coefficients were, for example, 0.69 between GCF volume and PD, 0.53 between GCF volume and AL, 0.57 between PD and GI, and 0.60 between AL and Mo, respectively.
2. The sites examined were classified into 2 groups which were an effective oral hygiene group (P1I=0 or 1) and a poor oral hygiene group (P1I = 2 or 3) according to the extent of plaque accumulation. In the effective oral hygiene group GCF volume correlated more with such parameters as PD, AL and GI than those in the poor oral hygiene group.
3. The effect of supragingival plaque on GCF volume according to the probing depth was examined. It was consequently found that if under 5 mm, the PD had a positive relationship with GCF volume and an evident influence on it.
