Periodontal bone height in professional musicians. Cross-sectional and longitudinal aspects

Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of the periodontal bone height were performed on professional musicians playing wind and non-wind instruments. The cross-sectional study population included 244 occupational musicians (186 men and 58 women aged 20-69 years) from three Swedish national orchestras. Eighty-seven were wind instrument musicians. Radiographic full-mouth surveys were performed and the periodontal bone height was measured with a computerized method and expressed as a percentage of the root length. The mean periodontal bone height was 83.4% for the musicians playing wind instruments and 83.6% for those playing non-wind instruments. There was no statistically significant difference in periodontal bone height between the two instrumentalist categories. In addition, the bone height quotients of anterior to posterior teeth were analyzed but no significant differences were found between wind and non-wind instrumentalists. A longitudinal cohort including 92 musicians who had been examined in a corresponding study 10 years earlier was studied. The overall loss of the periodontal bone height over the 10-year period was small, but only wind instrumentalists of the 50-69 year age group exhibited a statistically significant reduction over time. There was no statistically significant difference between musicians as regards instrument played. It is concluded from the cross-sectional and 10-year longitudinal observations that the playing of wind instruments is unlikely to affect periodontal bone height.