Java project on periodontal diseases: periodontal bone loss in relation to environmental and systemic conditions

To assess in a population deprived from regular dental care the relationship between alveolar bone loss (ABL) and environmental/systemic conditions.

The study population consisted of subjects from the Purbasari tea estate on West Java, Indonesia. A full set of dental radiographs was obtained of each subject and amount of ABL was assessed. In addition, the following parameters were evaluated: plasma vitamin C, vitamin D3 , HbA1c and CRP, the haptoglobin phenotype, presence of putative periodontopathic bacteria and viruses, dietary habits, smoking and anthropometrics.

In this population 45% showed vitamin C depletion/deficiency, 82% had vitamin D3 insufficiency/deficiency, 70% were in a pre-diabetic state, 6% had untreated diabetes, 21% had elevated CRP values ranging from 3.1 to 16.1 mg/l. Results of the regression analysis, including all above mentioned parameters, showed four significant predictors, explaining 19.8% of the variance of ABL. Number of Porphyromonas gingivalis cells and CRP values showed a positive relationship with ABL, whereas BMI and number of guava fruit servings were negatively related.

Results confirm previous findings that elevated levels of P. gingivalis may be indicative for periodontitis progression. A new finding is that guava fruit consumption may play a protective role in periodontitis in a malnourished population.