RESUMO
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to prove the effectiveness of professional maintenance care to the periodontal disease by non-surgical approach with the toothpick method to improve the periodontal health. METHODS: The patients of this study were composed of 46 patients( 18 men and 28 women), suffering from chronic adult periodontitis, who had visited the department of dental clinic center. All of the subjects were over 50years old and be treated just by non-surgical method. Professional maintenance care using the toothpick method was performed every 3 months, and evaluations were also done after 1, 2, and 3 year-professional maintenance care based on the indices such as plaque index(O' Leary index), periodontal probing pocket depth, bleeding on probing, tooth mobility, the number of tooth loss, and the rate of tooth loss representing the state of periodontal health. RESULTS: 1. The longer the maintenance care, the more the effectiveness of controlling plaque. The rate of decrease in the dental plaque index was 1.5%, 4.2%, and 6.5% in 1, 2, and 3 year maintenance groups respectively(P>0.05). 2. The periodontal pocket depth decreased depends on the severity of periodontal pocket depth in all groups the maintenance years(P0.05). 4. Tooth mobility has decreased in the maintenance years, but did not show any difference statistically(P>0.05). 5. The number and the rate of tooth loss among the patients of 1year-maintenance group was 0.38, 1.44% respectively and that of 3 year-maintenance group was 0.44, 1.73% each. CONCLUSION: The results of this study mentioned above suggest that professional maintenance care should be operated effectively to prevent and to maintain the periodontal disease systematically on the purpose of proving the quality of life, and that it could be applied to the medical insurance system in other to try to make the most of the adult oral health care positively.