Does Periodontal Surgery Affect Bite Force and Occlusal Contact Area?

Objectives: Mobility of teeth due to the loss of periodontal support or trauma resultant from periodontal surgery may change the amount of bite force (BF) and occlusal contact areas (OCA). Recently Dental Prescale system has been developed which could make quantitative analysis of BF and OCA. The aim of this study was to compare BF and OCA of teeth with periodontal disease before and after periodontal surgery to those with healthy periodontium. Methods: Ten periodontitis patients needed periodontal surgery served as test group. Prescale and mobility (Miller’s mobility index) measurements were taken just before surgery, at 1, 4 weeks and at 3 months after surgery. Attachement level were also measured in the test grouýp before surgery and post-op three months. Ten Control subjects were also evaluated using the above criterion. Results:Although there was an increase on the BF and OCA after the first week of periodontal operation, analysis of variance showed no statistical significant differences with the increase in time at 95% confidence interval. However, there was statistically significant difference for mobility (p=0.001) at 4 weeks and 3 months when compared to first week. A factorial ANOVA showed significant interaction between the BF and mobility (p< 0.05). A decrease at the mean mobility value was accompanied with an increase at the mean BF value. BF and OCA of control subjects were always greater than those of test subjects but this was not statistically significant. Mean mobility values of the test group showed difference (p<0.05) only when compared with the first week mobility of the test group. Conclusion: These findings suggest that changes in mean mobility values following periodontal surgery affect BF.