Associação entre a perda dentária e a prevalência de periodontite severa na população brasileira

Abstract

Introduction: Tooth loss is an important public health problem due to its effect on quality of life, as a result of consequences for oral and general health. The main reason for tooth loss in adults is periodontal disease. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between tooth loss and the prevalence of severe periodontitis using the National Oral Health Survey (SB Brasil) 2010. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, observational study in which the data of 9,195 people aged 35 to 44 years (adults) and 3,661 people aged 65 to 74 years (elderly) from 177 Brazilian cities were analyzed. The study assessed periodontal disease using the Community Periodontal Index (CPI) and also recorded the number of missing teeth. We considered a code of 4 as severe periodontitis, and categorized tooth loss into 3 groups, 21 to 31 (A), 11 to 20 (B) and 0 to 10 missing teeth (C). We used multivariate logistic regression to estimate the odds ratio (OR) of having severe periodontitis compared to patients without periodontitis (CPI codes 0, 1 or 2). Results: In adults, the prevalence of severe periodontitis according to the tooth loss category was A=5,4%, B=8,0% and C=5,9% and in the elderly was A=6,0%, B=11,0%, and C=9,9%. Adults with less tooth loss (groups B and C) had adjusted ORs 1,79 (1,21-2,66) and 1,57 (1,08-2,26) for presenting severe periodontitis, respectively. In the elderly persons the ORs were 2.08 (1,55-2,79) and 2,29 (1,69-3,19) for groups B and C, respectively. Conclusions: Persons with low or intermediate tooth loss were more likely to have severe periodontitis compared to those with greater tooth loss. This finding reveals that high tooth loss is a bias that investigators should be aware of when surveilling severe periodontitis.