Destructive periodontal diseases in minority populations

Disparities in the prevalence and severity of destructive periodontal diseases have been reported for American minority populations and have raised the following questions. Are differences in destructive periodontal disease prevalence and severity due to genetic or other confounding variables associated with ethnicity race? Do risk factors for destructive periodontal diseases differ among American minority populations or differ from the population at large? Answers to these questions will have profound impact on the direction of future research and the allocation of resources to address disparities in destructive periodontal diseases in American minority populations. Risk assessment studies that examined a set of clinical, demographic, immunologic, and microbiologic parameters of Asian Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans resident in the greater New York City region suggest that occupational status, monitored as a surrogate variable for socioeconomic status, may be a more robust risk factor than ethnicity/race for destructive periodontal diseases in these populations.