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Self‐reported gingivitis and bleeding gums among adolescents in Helsinki
Author(s) -
Kailio Pekka,
Nordblad Anne,
Croucher Ray,
Ainamo Jukka
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1994.tb02050.x
Subject(s) - gingivitis , medicine , bleeding on probing , dentistry , gingival inflammation , oral health , periodontitis
— The purpose of this descriptive cross‐sectional community based investigation was to analyze the relationship between professionally measured and perceived gingival health in a sample of 1217 adolescents (age 14.0±0.7 yr). The responses to two questionnaire items relating to self‐reporting of “gingivitis” (“inflammation of gums” in Finnish) and “bleeding from gums” are reported along with Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN), percentage of bleeding sites (BOP%) and modified Papillary Bleeding Index (PBI) scores. It was found that current or past “gingivitis” was less often reported than “bleeding from gums” by this sample and that responses to both items exhibited low levels of agreement with the clinical measures. The results suggest that the self‐reporting of gingival health may be useful in monitoring the gingival health of populations but does not have sufficient validity for screening individuals for gingivitis as defined by dental professionals. Furthermore, it is suggested that the term “bleeding from gums” rather than “gingivitis” should be used during clinical or group oral health promotion.