Periodontal breakdown inter-tooth relationships in estimating periodontitis-related tooth loss

The reasons for tooth extraction are rarely recorded in epidemiological datasets. It poses a diagnostic challenge to determine if tooth loss is related to periodontal disease (TLPD). The present study aimed to assess the inter-tooth relationships based on the periodontal characteristics of existing teeth. A cross-sectional dataset of 8,978 participants with complete periodontal examination (including probing pocket depth [PPD] and clinical attachment loss [CAL]) in the NHANES 2009–2014 was used in this study. Spearman rank correlation was applied to assess the inter-tooth correlations of PPD/CAL among 28 teeth after adjustment for relevant confounders. We further verify our findings in the Java Project on Periodontal Disease with TLPD information available (the number of TLPD = 12). Strong PPD/CAL correlations were observed in adjacent teeth (r for PPD = 0.652, r for CAL = 0.597; false discovery rate [FDR]