Assessing periodontal conditions in childbearing age women with different tools/systems

Abstract

Objectives: This study was to investigate the periodontal conditions in women of childbearing age via three assessment tools/systems. Methods: 131 childbearing age women (20-35 years) were recruited at Shenzhen Maternity & Child Healthcare Hospital, who were preparing for pregnancy or at different stages of gestational age. All subjects received full-mouth periodontal examination and were classified respectively, following the case definitions of CDC/AAP (2007), new classification scheme of periodontal conditions (AAP/EFP, 2017) and the Disease Profile Assessment tool of FDI ‘Chairside Guide’ (FDI-CG, 2018). The inter-association of various outcome measures was evaluated accordingly. Results: 97.7% of the subjects had over 50% of sites with plaque; and 71.8% and 11.5% showed mild-to-moderate (10-50%sites) and severe (>50%sites) bleeding on probing. Moderate (4-5mm) and deep pockets (>5 mm) existed in 40.5% and 19.0% of subjects, respectively. 99.2% had no tooth loss due to periodontitis. According to the CDC/AAP case definition, No or Mild Periodontitis and Moderate Periodontitis were present in 67.9% and 32.1% of the subjects, respectively. There were 40.5% of subjects with Periodontal Health or Gingivitis, and 42.7%, 15.3% and 1.5% having Stages 1-3 Periodontitis respectively, following the new classification scheme (AAP/EFP). Whereas, the outcomes of the scoring system of FDI-CG showed that 90.8% and 9.2% of the subjects exhibited Mild (Scores 0-5) or Moderate (Scores 6-10) Disease Profile, respectively. Overall, there was moderate consistency in assessment outcomes using the three tools/systems (Kendall’ W coefficient=0.606, P<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that the total score of FDI-CG, in both continuous (OR=17.05; 95%CI: 5.22-55.63, P<0.001) and categorical scales (OR=30.72; 95%CI: 3.77-250.16, P<0.001) was significantly associated with presence of periodontitis. Conclusions: The present study suggests that the 7-Item-based scoring system of FDI-CG with integrated periodontal risk variables may be a clinically applicable approach to screening for periodontal diseases in childbearing age women by general dentists.