[CHANGES OF SALIVARY CORTISOL LEVELS IN CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC GINGIVITIS]

Periodontal diseases are widespread in children and adolescents. By the information of World Health Organization, 80% of children have different degrees of inflammatory periodontal diseases, that often develop from the ages of 10-11 years. Pathology of periodontal tissues is developed when there is a disproportional growth and development of tissue structure, as within the system, also in the systems and structures that provide entire organism, which itself supplements the development of periodontal diseases in juveniles. Harmonious development of children and adolescents is, on a certain level, dependent on the proper functioning of endocrine system, the functional state of which is judged by the hormones it produces, specifically cortisol. The goal of our study was to determine the level of salivary cortisol in children during puberty, also reveal the connection between the hormonal disbalance and the periodontal tissue pathologies. To achieve this, we have studied 50 students of age 11-16 years. To assess periodontal tissue state we used clinical-instrumental and roentgenologic methods, while the salivary cortisol levels were determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Tests showed the connection between the hormonal disbalance and ongoing pathologic processes in periodontal tissue, more specifically, in children with high salivary cortisol levels, in the study group (average in males 2.29, in females 2.22) majority (67%) had severe forms of inflammatory periodontal diseases, which gives us a ground to conclude that in juveniles with the inflammatory periodontal diseases, functional reserve of adrenal gland is diminished.