Long-term periodontal care: a comparative retrospective survey

The maintenance of 172 patients who were treated and then attended a periodontal practice in Sydney, Australia for periods of at least 10 years has been surveyed. The results, expressed as loss of teeth over the maintenance period, have been compared with a 1978 study. Results of the two surveys have been compared for total tooth loss over the maintenance period, loss of individual tooth types, loss of teeth with furca lesions, and tooth loss relative to surgical experience. The comparative analysis is limited by the difference in total number of patients and by the duration of the studies. The proportionate division of patients into three groups according to tooth retention (well maintained, downhill, and extreme downhill) was statistically similar in both surveys. There were very few statistically valid differences in numbers of individual teeth lost between the two studies. Despite these comparable end results of long-term maintenance, the surgical experience was quite different, with the patients in our practice undergoing much more surgical treatment than those in the earlier report. The results appear to support the hypothesis that long-term maintenance is attainable for most periodontal patients, and is consistent with a variety of treatment approaches.