Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Nov 21;19(1):254.
doi: 10.1186/s12903-019-0925-z.

Prevalence of periodontitis and alveolar bone loss in a patient population at Harvard School of Dental Medicine

Mohammad F Helmi  1   2 , Hui Huang  3 , J Max Goodson  4   5 , Hatice Hasturk  5 , Mary Tavares  2 , Zuhair S Natto  6
Affiliations

Prevalence of periodontitis and alveolar bone loss in a patient population at Harvard School of Dental Medicine

Mohammad F Helmi et al. BMC Oral Health. .

Abstract

Background: Although several studies assessed the prevalence of alveolar bone loss, the association with several risk factors has not been fully investigated. The aim of this article is to measure the prevalence of periodontitis by calculating the mean alveolar bone loss/level of posterior teeth using bitewing radiographs among the patients enrolled in the clinics at Harvard School of Dental Medicine and address risk factors associated with the disease.

Methods: One thousand one hundred thirty-one patients were selected for radiographic analysis to calculate the mean alveolar bone loss/level by measuring the distance between the cementoenamel junction and the alveolar bone crest on the mesial and distal surfaces of posterior teeth. Linear regression with Multi-level mixed-effect model was used for statistical analysis adjusting for age, sex, race, median household income, and other variables.

Results: Mean alveolar bone level of the whole sample was 1.30 mm (±0.006). Overall periodontitis prevalence for the sample was 55.5% (±1.4%). Moderate periodontitis prevalence was 20.7% (±1.2%), while 2.8% (±0.5%) of the whole sample had severe periodontitis. Adjusted mean alveolar bone loss was higher in older age groups, males, Asian race group, ever smokers, and patients with low median household income.

Conclusion: The effect of high household income on the amount of bone loss can be powerful to the degree that high household income can influence outcomes even for individuals who had higher risks of developing the disease. Public health professionals and clinicians need to collaborate with policy makers to achieve and sustain high quality of healthcare for everyone.

Keywords: Alveolar bone loss; Periodontal disease; Prevalence; Systemic diseases.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Multi-level Mixed-effect model
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
ROC curve of comparing CDC-AAP case definitions of periodontitis to 15% corrected measurements for radiographic magnification. *xb1 = recommended guidelines using CDC-AAP case definitions. *xb2 = measurements corrected for radiographic discrepancy
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Prevalence of mild, moderate, and severe periodontitis over different age groups and gender
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. CDC. Periodontal Disease. 2015; Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/periodontal_disease/
    1. Theilade E. The non-specific theory in microbial etiology of inflammatory periodontal diseases. J Clin Periodontol. United States. 1986;13(10):905–911. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-051X.1986.tb01425.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Haffajee AD, Socransky SS. Microbial etiological agents of destructive periodontal diseases. Periodontol 2000. Denmark. 1994;5:78–111. - PubMed
    1. Preus H, Zambon JJ. The natural history of periodontal disease . The correlation of selected microbiological parameters with disease severity in Sri Lankan tea workers The natural history of periodontal disease The correlation of selected microbiological. 1995;(October 2015). - PubMed
    1. Kinane DF, Preshaw PM, Loos BG. Host-response: understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of host-microbial interactions--consensus of the Seventh European Workshop on Periodontology. J Clin Periodontol. United States; 2011 Mar;38 Suppl 11:44–48. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources