Methods: Israeli military personnel, who visited a dental clinic for a routine examination, were asked to participate in this study. Before the examination, each participant was asked to fill a questionnaire regarding ethnic origin, systemic health, education and smoking status, as well as oral hygiene habits and self-perception of his or her own periodontal status using visual analog scale. Later, the participants were examined clinically and radiographically, including measurements of plaque index (PI), periodontal pocket depth (PD) and radiographic alveolar bone level.
Results: 350 young adults participated in the study. The mean age (±S.D.) was 23.4 (±5.0) years. No correlation was found between age and number of sites with PD ≥5 mm. However, correlation was found between age and the number of sites with ≥3 mm radiographic bone loss sites (p<0.0001). Smoking was found to be related to radiographic bone loss (p=0.001) but not to clinical high PD. The participants' periodontal self-assessment was in correlation with the number of sites with high PD (p=0.013) and the number of sites with radiographic bone loss (p=0.045). The self-assessments were also in correlation with PI (p=0.003) and daily flossing times (p=0.022).
Conclusions: The subjects' perception of their own periodontal status is usually rather accurate, and might be beneficial in large epidemiologic studies.