Periodontal Status Among Perimenopausal and Early Postmenopausal Women

As today the life-span expectation has increased also the number of dentate people is increasing. Today standard of dental treatment allow people to be able to retain their own teeth but meanwhile more periodontal problems occur. Objectives:We set out a study to evaluate the periodontal health (PH) of perimenopausal and early postmenopausal aged women and to see how the current use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) associated with the PH of these women. Our hypothesis was that women using HRT are more interested on their oral health and therefore have better periodontal health than those not using HRT. Methods: Material was collected from 3173, 50 to 58 year old women, who attended our earlier questionnaire study. Of them 200 reporting the use HRT and 200 not using HRT were randomised and invited to clinical study. A structured questionnaire was given prior to the clinical examination. The PH status was evaluated according to the CPI method based on the WHO recommendations. Number of >6mm gingival pockets were recorded separately. Periodontitis (Pt) was considered when at least one sextant had CPI score 3. Differences between the HRT users and non-users were analyzed statistically. Regression analysis was performed to identify the variables associated with the presence of Pt. Results: 238 women attended the clinical study, 138 used HRT, 100 were non-HRT users. The mean number of pockets >6 mm was 0.9±1.7 for HRT users and 1.3±2.2 for non-users (p=0.136). Pt was diagnosed for 74 % (n=101) of HRT users and 86 %(n=85) for non-users (p=0.046). Conclusion: According to regression analyses, smoking seemed to associate with Pt for HRT users and for non-HRT users unsatisfactory self-assessed oral health.