Periodontal status in 18-year-old Lithuanian adolescents: An epidemiological study.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate the periodontal and oral hygiene status of 18-year-old Lithuanian adolescents.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cross-sectional data were collected by a multistage sampling approach that was used to draw a representative sample of 1063 adolescents attending schools. In total, 20 schools from the alphabetical list of educational institutions in Lithuania agreed to participate. Periodontal status was evaluated using the Periodontal Screening and Recording (PSR) index. The oral hygiene status was assessed using the Silness-Löe plaque index.


RESULTS
The analysis of the PSR index showed that 77.1% of the study population exhibited gum bleeding on probing, had supragingival and/or subgingival calculus, and shallow pockets. Analysis of the composition of the PSR index revealed that in children whose parents had low education levels (18.6%), gum bleeding was more common than in those whose parents had medium education levels (9.5%) (P<0.05). Our data showed that in 40.0% of the study participants, oral hygiene status was satisfactory, with a statistically significant difference between boys (46.9%) and girls (35.3%) (P<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of our study showed that the periodontal and oral hygiene status of 18-year-old Lithuanian population could be characterized as poor. In total, 77.1% of the study participants were found to have periodontal conditions such as gum bleeding, dental calculus, and shallow pockets. The anterior teeth of the mandible were most frequently affected.
['Bendoraitienė|Eglė|E|', 'Zūbienė|Jūratė|J|', 'Vasiliauskienė|Ingrida|I|', 'Saldūnaitė|Kristina|K|', 'Andruškevičienė|Vilija|V|', 'Basevičienė|Nomeda|N|', 'Slabšinskienė|Eglė|E|']
D000293:Adolescent D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D003728:Dental Calculus D003774:Dental Plaque Index D016021:Epidemiologic Studies D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008097:Lithuania D008297:Male D010510:Periodontal Diseases
Adolescent Silness-Löe plaque index Oral health Periodontal Screening and Recording index