Periodontal conditions among adults in Southern Thailand.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the periodontal conditions among 30-39- and 50-59-year-old rural Thais from the Province of Songkhla, Southern Thailand. METHODS: A total of 359 dentate persons were given a clinical examination comprising recordings of plaque and calculus in six teeth, and bleeding on probing, attachment level and pocket depth in six sites of all teeth present, except third molars. The same examiner carried out all examinations. Information on religious faith, smoking habits and use of betel was obtained by interview. A subset consisting of 60 persons was reexamined for attachment level 6 months later by another examiner. RESULTS: The oral hygiene conditions were poor with abundant amounts of both plaque and calculus. Gingival bleeding was essentially ubiquitous. The prevalence of attachment loss > or = 4 mm was 92% among 30-39-year-olds and 100% among 50-59-year-olds. The average percentage of sites affected in the two age groups was 23.9% and 63.9%. Pockets > or = 4 mm were seen in 84% of the 30-39-year-olds and in 93% of the 50-59-year-olds. Older age, Thai Buddhist faith and a high percentage of sites with calculus were significant positive predictors of a high percentage of sites with attachment loss > or = 4 mm, whereas older age and Thai Buddhist faith were the only statistically significant predictors of a high percentage of sites with attachment loss > or = 7 mm. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that this Thai population may have more widespread and severe periodontal destruction than other Asian populations, but failed to confirm the contention that Muslim faith is associated with more severe periodontal destruction.

Determinants of dental status and caries among adults in southern Thailand.

This study describes the tooth mortality and the prevalence and severity of dental caries among 30- to 39- and 50- to 59-year-old rural Thais from the Province of Songhkla, Thailand. Three hundred and sixty-three persons were given a clinical examination, including assessment of dental status, dental caries, and periodontal recordings. Information on religious faith, smoking, and betel use was obtained by means of an interview. The prevalence of edentulism was low (<2% among 50- to 59-year-olds). The mean number of teeth present was high, 29.4 among the 30- to 39-year-olds and 24.3 among the 50- to 59-year-olds. The prevalence of caries was high (91% among 30- to 39-year-olds and 84% among 50- to 59-year-olds). The mean DFT values were 5.7 and 5.8, respectively, and a substantial part of the DFT consisted of deep dentin lesions. The results did not corroborate the hypothesis that persons of Muslim faith have worse dental conditions than do Thai Buddhist or that dental disease levels are higher among the Thai population than among other Southeast Asian populations.

Periodontal microbiota and clinical periodontal status in a rural sample in southern Thailand.

We sought to determine (i) the association of subgingival bacterial profiles to clinical periodontal status in a population with limited access to dental care in Thailand, and (ii) the external validity of our earlier findings from a similar study in rural China. We examined 356 subjects, 30-39 yr old and 50-59 yr old, with respect to clinical periodontal status and subgingival plaque at maximally 14 sites per subject. Checkerboard hybridizations were used to analyse a total of 4343 samples. The prevalence of the 27 species investigated ranged between 87.2% and 100%. Discriminant analysis based on microbial profiles classified correctly 67.5% of all deep (> or = 5 mm) and 64.2% of all shallow sites, and 67.4% of all subjects with and 69.3% of all subjects without > or = 3 deep pockets. High colonization by 'red complex' bacteria was four times as likely (95% Confidence Limits (CL) 2.5-6.6) in subjects with > or = 10 sites with attachment loss of > or = 5 mm, and 4.3 times as likely (95% CL 2.6-7.1) in subjects with > or = 30 such sites. The data confirmed (i) the ubiquitous prevalence of the bacteria investigated in subjects with no regular access to dental care; and (ii) the high odds for periodontal pathology conferred by increased levels of specific periodontal bacteria.