IADR Abstract Archives
The Role of Age and Gender in Periodontal Therapy Outcomes
Objectives: Periodontitis is one of the most common dental diseases affecting 42% adults in the United States. Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that the prevalence of periodontitis in older adults and men is significantly higher as compared to that in younger adults and women, respectively. However, the clinical significance of these differences is unclear. Limited evidence has suggested that the outcomes of periodontal therapy are not affected by age and gender; however, common limitations of these studies include small size populations, various definitions and cutoffs of periodontitis, and a lack of multivariate analysis for confounding factors. In this proposal, we aimed to examine the role of age and gender in the outcomes of non-surgical and surgical periodontal therapies.
Methods: A total of 6,519 patient records from the BigMouth Repository were included in this study. All patients (both women and men) were divided into three age groups: younger than 35 years (young age group), between 35 and 65 years (middle age group), and 65 years or elder (old age group). The patients were further categorized into those who had non-surgical (scaling and root planing) and surgical (flap) periodontal therapy. For statistical analysis, we used a hierarchical mixed-effects model to evaluate the age- and gender-associated changes in clinical attachment loss (CAL) and probing depth (PD) as primary outcomes of periodontal treatment.
Results: For both outcomes, the differences across gender, age and disease severity groups were found statistically significant; particularly, the mean PD of the surgical therapy group was higher than that of the non-surgical group (P = .0121), and the mean CAL of the surgical therapy group was also higher than that of the non-surgical group (P < .0001). For both non-surgical and surgical therapies, there was a significant and age-dependent increase in CAL and PD values in older individuals (women and men) as compared to younger ones (P < .0001).
Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that the outcomes of non-surgical and surgical periodontal therapy were dependent on the age and gender of the patients. These results suggest that clinicians should consider age and gender as important determinants of therapy success and develop patient-centered, personalized treatment protocols.
Methods: A total of 6,519 patient records from the BigMouth Repository were included in this study. All patients (both women and men) were divided into three age groups: younger than 35 years (young age group), between 35 and 65 years (middle age group), and 65 years or elder (old age group). The patients were further categorized into those who had non-surgical (scaling and root planing) and surgical (flap) periodontal therapy. For statistical analysis, we used a hierarchical mixed-effects model to evaluate the age- and gender-associated changes in clinical attachment loss (CAL) and probing depth (PD) as primary outcomes of periodontal treatment.
Results: For both outcomes, the differences across gender, age and disease severity groups were found statistically significant; particularly, the mean PD of the surgical therapy group was higher than that of the non-surgical group (P = .0121), and the mean CAL of the surgical therapy group was also higher than that of the non-surgical group (P < .0001). For both non-surgical and surgical therapies, there was a significant and age-dependent increase in CAL and PD values in older individuals (women and men) as compared to younger ones (P < .0001).
Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that the outcomes of non-surgical and surgical periodontal therapy were dependent on the age and gender of the patients. These results suggest that clinicians should consider age and gender as important determinants of therapy success and develop patient-centered, personalized treatment protocols.