Prevalence of Dentine Hypersensitivity in Gingival recession

Aims: To study the prevalence of dentine hypersensitivity in teeth with gingival recession in general, and to study its prevalence in various degrees of gingival recession. Methods: 676 subjects were examined randomly at 2 dental centres. They were administered a questionnaire which was followed by an examination of each participants teeth. Any tooth within inclusion critera and with gingival recession was examined and the surface area of the gingival recession was measured using a periodontal probe that was held horizontally against the tooth measuring the width of the recession and then it was held vertically to measure the depth of the defect. Thus the recession was recorded as surface area "width x depth mm2". The teeth with gingival recession were then tested for dentine hypersensitivity presence by a 1-second duration air-stream from the 3-in-1 handpiece of the dental unit. Results: the prevalence of gingival recession was 79%, and the prevalence of dentine hypersensitivity among teeth with gingival recession was 23.6%. Within mild gingival recession (1-5 mm2), maxillary anterior teeth had more dentine hypersensitivity than their mandibular opponents (20.9% vs. 13.9%). This difference was significant resepctively (p= 0.034). With regard to moderate and severe recession the ratio was reveresed as maxillary teeth had less dentine hypersensitivity than the mandibular, but with no significant difference (moderate 19.2% vs 21.6%, severe 30.0% vs.42.6% respectively). With regard to posterior teeth, there were no major differences between upper and lower teeth in mild, moderate or severe gingival recessions, and this was not significant statistically. Conclusion: Maxillary anterior teeth with mild gingival recession have significantly more dentine hypersensitivity than mandibular anterior teeth.