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Self‐assessed bleeding as an indicator of gingival health among 12–14‐year‐old children
Author(s) -
Taani D. Q.,
Alhaija E. S. J. A.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of oral rehabilitation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.991
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2842
pISSN - 0305-182X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2842.2003.01021.x
Subject(s) - medicine , oral hygiene , dentistry , oral health , gingival disease , bleeding on probing , gingivitis , significant difference , periodontitis
summary The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between self‐assessed gingival bleeding (GB) and clinically diagnosed gingival health among 12–14‐year‐old school children. A study group (982) comprising of school children aged 12–14 years was chosen by a simple random method from the five geographical areas in Irbid Governate, Jordan. All children completed a questionnaire related to self‐assessment of GB after brushing before they had a clinical examination for oral hygiene and gingival condition using the criteria of Silness & Löe plaque index (1964) and Löe and Silness gingival index (1963). The results showed that the proportions of children who had self‐assessed or clinically assessed GB increased gradually from 12 to 14 years of age with no significant difference ( P > 0·05). There were significantly higher proportions of boys than girls who had self‐assessed or were clinically assessed GB ( P =0·02, 0·001). The mean plaque (1·83 ± 0·54) and gingival scores (1·90 ± 0·59) of children who reported GB were significantly higher than parallel scores of children without GB (1·27 ± 0·62, 1·23 ± 0·59), respectively ( P < 0·001). There was a moderate correlation ( r =0·501) between self‐assessed GB and gingival health. In conclusion, there was a positive correlation between self‐assessed GB and gingival health of 12–14‐year‐old children. Therefore, this may be beneficial for monitoring gingival health in children of, at least, developing countries.