Tooth Loss in Compliant and Non-compliant French Periodontal Treated Patients

Objectives: The aim of the present retrospective study was to evaluate the long-term effect of compliance with supportive periodontal treatment (SPT) on tooth loss in French patients.
Methods: The included patients were selected from the electronic database of the Department of Periodontology, Dental Faculty, University of Strasbourg, France, from November 1989 to December 2002. To be selected patients needed to have reliable and updated data on medical history, periodontal and radiological parameters, smoking habit and reasons for tooth loss (TL). Patients were divided into 3 groups, a) Group A with regular compliers who undergo SPT more than once a year, b) Group B with irregular compliers who undergo SPT between 2 and 4 times in 5 years, and c) Group C with non-compliers who undergo SPT less than once in 5 years or did not follow SPT at all. TL/year was defined as the mean number of tooth lost per year during follow-up.
Results: A total sample of 105 patients was selected for the study, 39 in group A, 37 in group B and 29 in group C. The mean follow-up was 9.7 years. For the whole sample, 2502 teeth (23.8 teeth per patient) were present at the initial examination. Seventeen hopeless teeth have been extracted during active periodontal treatment (APT) (0.16 per patient). A total of 207 teeth have been lost for the 105 patients during the follow-up with a significant difference between groups. TL/year in group C (0.40) was significantly (p>0.01) two times higher that TL/year observed in A (0.20) and B (0.20) groups. TL/year significantly increased (p<0.05) with patient age while initial periodontal status and time of follow up did not influence TL/year.
Conclusions: Teeth have more risk of being lost in patients who are not compliant with supportive periodontal treatment