Tooth Loss in 776 Treated Periodontal Patients

Background: The most common form of periodontitis is a variably progressive dynamic pathologic process that causes attachment loss, destroys the alveolar bone supporting a tooth, and terminates with tooth loss. We evaluated the loss of teeth of treated periodontal patients categorized by severity and risk. Methods: Each of nine periodontists evaluated 100 consecutive periodontal maintenance patients. The disease severity and risk level were determined from data at the initial examination. The number of teeth lost was determined from data at the initial and maintenance visits. Results: A stepwise regression analysis showed that disease (P = 0.0000478) and risk (P = 0.00129) scores predicted the mean tooth loss rate. The adjusted R2 statistic was 88.56%. The ordinal logistic regression model showed that only the disease score (P