We aimed to assess the trends in prevalence and extent of periodontal diseases in Germany.
Method:
The Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) is a cross-sectional population-based study conducted during 1997-2001 (SHIP-0, 20-81 years) and 2008-2012 (SHIP-Trend, 20-84 years) in northeast Germany. Periodontal status was assessed at four sites per tooth using a half-mouth recording protocol. The German Oral Health Studies (DMS, 35-44 and 65-74 years) are national cross-sectional surveys conducted in 1997 (DMS-3) and 2005 (DMS-4). For both studies, periodontal status was evaluated at two surfaces in six index teeth. For SHIP-0 and SHIP-Trend, numbers of subjects with probing depth data were 3740 and 3622, respectively. For DMS-3 and DMS-4, respective numbers were 1447 and 1668.
Result:
In SHIP-0/SHIP-Trend, prevalence of attachment loss (AL)> or =3 decreased from 89.7% to 87.7% of subjects (p<0.05), and the percentage of teeth being affected reduced from 62.8% to 58.8% (p<0.05). Probing depth (PD)> or =4 increased from 69.6% to 72.1% (p>0.05), and the mean extent rose from 29.7% to 32.3% (p>0.05). In DMS 3/4, the number of teeth of dentates for 35-44-year-olds increased from 23.0 to 25.0 (p<0.05) in East and from 24.4 to 25.6 (p<0.05) in West Germany. For 65-74-year-olds, the respective numbers rose from 12.4 to 16.3 (p<0.05) in East and from 14.1 to 18.3 (p<0.05) in West Germany. In SHIP-0/SHIP-Trend the proportion of subjects with severe periodontitis according to the CDC classification decreased from 18.3% to 16.8% (p<0.05). In DMS-3/DMS-4 the proportion of subjects with severe periodontitis decreased significantly for 65-74-year-olds (13.6% to 10.9% in East and 13.2% to 9.8% in West Germany, p<0.05).
Conclusion:
Although the number of teeth of dentates increased, prevalence and extent of AL improved almost in all age categories in SHIP-0/SHIP-Trend, whereas PD did not show such a clear trend.