Periodontitis progession in patients subjected to supportive maintenance care

The maintenance care following the initial active therapy phase plays an essential part in periodontal treatment to prevent disease progression and includes supportive periodontal therapy based on the patient's individual needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal proximal alveolar bone loss and tooth loss in periodontitis-prone patients during the active treatment and maintenance phase. In addition, the effect on disease progression of potential predictors was investigated. The investigation was conducted as a retrospective longitudinal study over a period of at least 10 years on a randomly selected population of patients referred for periodontal treatment in a specialist periodontal clinic. The mean number of teeth lost between baseline and the first re-evaluation was 2.4 and another 2.3 teeth were lost between the first and last re-evaluation. More than 50% of the periodontal pockets > or = 6 mm were reduced to < or = 5 mm at the re-evaluations. The mean longitudinal bone loss was 9% of the root length, corresponding to a mean annual marginal bone loss of about 0.09 mm. Smoking was significantly correlated to an increased longitudinal tooth loss, while the number of periodontal pockets > or = 6 mm at baseline was significantly correlated to an increased longitudinal bone loss. The magnitudes of marginal bone loss and tooth loss during a maintenance phase of 10-26 years were in accordance with the results from longitudinal studies performed on normal populations in Sweden.