The Observation of Periodontal Condition of the Senior High School Students on their Successive Three Years: Salivary Occult Blood Test and PMA Index

It has been described in the previous reports that the salivary inspection method by Hema-Combistix paper served as a convenient test for finding the gingival bleeding or an early stage of periodontal disease. The purpose of this paper was to examine whether salivary occult blood test by Hema-Combistix were also favorable for a long serial observation of periodontal condition. The observation on the 375 senior high school students was performed once a year, starting when the subjects were on their first year, and followed up for three years on the respective students. The results were as follows: 1) There was little difference in the sensitivity to the salivary occult blood test between the first and the second year students, but were significant differences in numbers of subjects with positive reaction to the test between the second and the third year students. 2) There was a statistically significant increasing tendency on PMA index value according to school age. 3) There was also a correlation between sensitivity to the salivary occult blood test and degree of gingival bleeding.