The natural history of periodontal disease in man

Abstract

This is the first 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 periodontal state of the two groups at baseline. The results show that th Norwegian group had good to excellent oral hygiene and mild gingivitis. Supra‐and subgingival calculus were inconspicous and untreated slowly with age. The mean loss of attachment in the 30+year old was less than one millimeter. Tht Sri Lankan tea laborers showed poor oral hygiene, abundance of calculus and generalized moderate to severe gingivitis. Caries and dental restorations were non‐existent. Slight loss of attachment was seen in the 15year 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 subsantial number of teeth exhibited attachment loss in excess of 10 mm. The baseline analysis indicated that due to the choice of study groups and design, the longitudenal data will lend themselves to describing the initiation, pattern of development and the rate of progress of periodontal disease during major portions of the abult life of these people.