Long-term tooth retention in chronic periodontitis - results after 18 years of a conservative periodontal treatment regimen in a university setting.

AIM: The longitudinal study assessed the risk of tooth loss under a non-regenerative treatment regimen and aimed to identify prognostic factors for tooth loss. METHODS: Three hundred and fifteen patients (8009 teeth) were examined before (T0) and after active periodontal therapy (APT, T1) as well as after (mean ± SD) 18 ± 6 years of supportive periodontal therapy (SPT, T2). Descriptive statistics and a Cox proportional hazards shared-frailty model were applied. RESULTS: Overall, 351 and 816 teeth were lost during APT and SPT, respectively, with 0.15 ± 0.17 teeth being lost per patient and year. Seventy-two percentage patients lost 0-3, 24% 4-9 and 4% ≥10 teeth. The proportion of teeth with probing-pocket depths (PPD) >6 mm was 17.2% (T0), 1.6% (T1) and remained stable at 1.7% up to T2. Tooth loss during SPT was significantly increased in older patients [HR (95% CI): 1.04 (1.01-1.07) per year] and smokers [2.62 (1.34-5.14)], with each mm of PPD [1.35 (1.17-1.56)], in multirooted compared with single-rooted teeth [1.86 (1.36-2.56)] and teeth with bone loss [BL; HR up to 23.6 (12.1-45.6) for BL > 70%]. CONCLUSION: The risk of tooth loss was generally low under the provided non-regenerative treatment regimen; a minority of patients were responsible for the majority of teeth lost during SPT.

Retention of questionable and hopeless teeth in compliant patients treated for aggressive periodontitis.

AIM: The aim of this study was to determine the survival rates of questionable and hopeless teeth in patients with aggressive periodontitis (AgP) and chronic periodontitis (CP) during 15 years of supportive periodontal therapy (SPT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-four AgP and 34 CP patients (SPT≥10 years) with bone loss of ≥50% at ≥2 teeth were consecutively recruited. Bone loss was measured on digitized radiographs and teeth were categorized as "questionable" (≥50 to <70% bone loss) or as "hopeless" (≥70%). Progression in pocket probing depths (PPD) during SPT, tooth loss and reasons for extraction were analysed. RESULTS: In AgP patients, 262 teeth were considered as questionable and 63 as hopeless (CP: 149/51). During active periodontal therapy, 25 questionable and 26 hopeless teeth were extracted (CP: 12/16). During 15.3 ± 4.1 years of SPT of AgP 28 questionable and 15 hopeless teeth were removed (CP: 28/12). The mean tooth loss per patient during SPT in total was 0.14 (AgP) and 0.16 (CP) teeth/year. There were no significant differences in tooth loss or longitudinal progression of PPD between AgP and CP patients. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with AgP, 88.2% (209 of 237) of questionable and 59.5% (22 of 37) of hopeless teeth survived 15 years during regular SPT in a dental school department.