The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the distribution, determinants, changes and inter-relationships observed in oral health, oral disease and oral function from findings of periodic examinations performed at regular intervals in a population of male veterans in good health at the outset.
Six variables of periodontal pathology were independently measured by two periodontists in a study of healthy male adult participants from the VA Dental Longitudinal Study. Two examination sets containing a total of 50 volunteers were compared to establish interexaminer agreement. Measures of gingival recession, tooth mobility, calculus accumulation, and plaque accumulation exhibited high interexaminer correlation. The measures of periodontal pocket depth and gingival health also showed good levels of agreement, but reflected the examination order; the second examiner consistently scored more severe disease because of the invasive nature of these measures. Establishment of the reproducibility of periodontal pathology measurements is essential for studies which involve more than one examiner. This investigation demonstrated a high confidence level of reproducibility for the six measures utilized and showed that recalibration enhanced the initial training procedure and increased examiner agreement above the initial level.
Six variables associated with periodontal disease were evaluated in 635 men. Correlations between individual variables were low to moderate.' Highest correlations were observed between bone loss and tooth mobility. Principal component analysis of the intercorrelation matrix, followed by Varimax rotation of the factor matrix, demonstrated two distinct factors, periodontitis and gingivitis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.