Dental and Periodontal Status of Dentists and Dental Hygienists Engaging in Oral Implant Treatments in the Kyushu Area

<p>Purpose : Dentists and dental hygienists are experts of oral hygiene management, and it is likely that their dental and peri odontal states are better than those of general people. We hypothesized that there would be a low risk of losing teeth due to periodontal disease if the whole population performed the same self-care method as dentists and dental hygienists, and inves tigated the dental and periodontal states of dentists and dental hygienists.</p><p>Materials and Methods : We mailed a questionnaire to 130 dental clinics affiliated with the Fukuoka Oral Implant Research Association and engaging in oral implant treatments and asked the dentists and dental hygienists to participate in the investi gation and fill out the questionnaire, which included questions on systemic and dental anamnesis, lifestyle, intraoral state, and oral hygiene management method.</p><p>Results : The number of subjects that filled out the questionnaire was 225 (43 facilities). The average age of the subjects was 38.9 years old, and the sex ratio was 22.7% men and 77.3% women. The average number of tooth-brushing times per day was 3.0 ; the mean number of present teeth was 27.3 ; the ratio having probing depth of more than 4 mm was 6.1% ; the ratio with bleeding at the time of probing was 12.1% ; and the number of DMFs was 8.9. The total number of missing teeth of all subjects was 179, of which 66 sites were restored by some kind of prostheses (31 sites by dental implants, 15 by bridg es, 1 by removable denture, 19 sites unclear).</p><p>Discussion and Conclusion : The intraoral state of the subjects revealed that their condition was generally good, but pre dicting the future results of subjects from a lower age group would be difficult. We will collect data for dentists and dental hygienists of an older age group, and aim to develop a self-care method to achieve the 8020 campaign in future.</p>