Prevalence of alveolar bone loss in healthy children treated at private pediatric dentistry clinics

Abstract

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of alveolar bone loss (BL) in healthy children treated at private pediatric dentistry clinics in Brasília, Brazil.Material and MethodsThe research included 7,436 sites present in 885 radiographs from 450 children. The BL prevalence was estimated by measuring the distance from the cementoenamel junction (CEJ) to alveolar bone crest (ABC). Data were divided in groups: (I) No BL: distance from CEJ to ABC is ≤2 mm; (II) questionable BL (QBL): distance from CEJ to ABC is >2 and <3 mm; (III) definite BL (DBL): distance from CEJ to ABC ≥3 mm. Data were treated by the chi-square nonparametric test and Fisher's exact test (p<0.05).ResultsAmong males, 89.31% were classified in group I, 9.82% were classified in group II and 0.85% in group III. Among females, 93.05%, 6.48% and 0.46% patients were classified in Group I, II and III, respectively. The differences between genders were not statistically significant (Chi-square test, p = 0.375). Group composition according to patients’ age showed that 91.11% of individuals were classified as group I, 8.22% in group II and 0.67% in group III. The differences among the age ranges were not statistically significant (Chi-square test, p = 0.418). The mesial and distal sites showed a higher prevalence of BL in the jaw, QBL (89.80%) and DBL (79.40%), and no significant difference was observed in the distribution of QBL (Fisher’s exact test p = 0.311) and DBL (Fisher’s exact test p = 0.672) in the dental arches. The distal sites exhibited higher prevalence of both QBL (77.56%) and DBL (58.82%).ConclusionsThe periodontal status of children should never be underestimated because BL occurs even in healthy populations, although in a lower frequency.

The Alveolar Bone Height of Mandibular Incisors and Molars in Healthy Basheer Ali

“…However, this is anticipated due to the exfoliation of primary teeth and eruption of permanent teeth happens between the two groups. In this study, the findings of first group (4 to 5 years old) is similar to other study where the results displayed that age had no effect on the distance CEJ-ABC in the primary teeth phase, between 2 and 5 years of age of Brazilian children only 31 . Also, the findings of second group (9 to 10 years old) were similar to other study where there was no difference among the four age groups (6-9 years) and its mean distances where becoming somewhat smaller with age, but there is no any relevance to this drop when measurements become beneath the threshold CEJ-ABC distance 25 .…”

Periodontal disease in children and adolescents of Latin America

“…A radiographic‐based study, performed by Guimaraes et al. in 2‐ to 11‐year‐old children, found definite bone loss in fewer than 1% and questionable bone loss in approximately 10% of subjects. A retrospective longitudinal study based on bitewing radiograph examination of 3‐ to 10‐year‐old subjects with no obvious signs of periodontitis initially found that periodontal bone loss increased with age, and the presence of tooth surfaces with either caries or restorations increased the probability of bone loss .…”

Factors associated with scientific production citations in dentistry: Zero-inflated negative binomial regression and hurdle modelling

“…For example, in the study by Poletto and Junior, 59 one of the key review articles in the field, the authors concluded that the previous literature provided little conclusive scientific evidence, specifically in the Brazilian scientific literature, a context in which the prevalence of alveolar bone loss was also studied in children considered healthy and treated in private paediatric dentistry clinics. 60 Moreover, it is evident that this concept has dominated the literature since that year, constituting the most researched term in 2012 and 2019, which further indicates the relevance of the topic.…”