The natural history of periodontal disease in man.

This is the lint in a series of reports on a longitudinal investigation of the initiation and progress of periodontal disease in man, One group was established in Norway in 1969 and consisted of 565 male students and teachers between 17 and 30-- years. A second group of comparable age was established in Sri Lanka in 1970 and consisted of 480 tea laborers, Both groups were scored for various disease parameters at start and at intervals during the subsequent seven years. This paper describes the design of the investigation and the periodontal state of the two groups at baseline, The results show that the Norwegian group had good to excellent oral hygiene and mild gingivitis. Supra- and subgingival calcutus were inconspicuous and untreated gingival caries rare, Deficient margins of fillings and other restorations were commonplace. Slight loss of attachment Was apparent in the Youngest group and increased slowly with age, The mean loss of attachment in the 30 year old was less than one millimeter. The Sri Lankan tea laborers showed poor oral hygiene. abundance of calculus and generalized moderate to severe gingivitis, Canes and dental restorations were non-existent. Slight loss of attachment was seen in the 15 year old and increased through the twenties. The 30+ years old Sri Lankan tea laborer showed a mean loss of more than 3 mm and a substantial number of teeth exhibited attachment loss in excess of 10 mm, The baseline analysis indicates that due to the choice of study groups and design, the longitudinal data will lend themselves to describing the initiation. pattern of development and the rate of progress of periodontal disease during major portions of the adult life of these people [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]