Interdental Bone Loss Research Articles

Disease progression in periodontally treated and untreated patients – a retrospective study

The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the effect of regular supportive periodontal treatment on disease progression in patients with moderate to advanced periodontitis. We compared radiographic change of interdental bone level and number of teeth at 2 time points in 3 patient groups (mean age 46 years): group A, periodontally untreated patients (n= 14) who dropped out during initial therapy; group B, non-compliant patients (n=26), who discontinued supportive periodontal therapy after ca. 2 years of maintenance; group C, compliant patients (n=27), who regularly attended the maintenance program for 7 years. Periodontal treatment was performed as scaling and root planing or flap surgery in groups B and C. All 3 groups were re-examined ca. 7 years after the initial examination. Patients in group A lost 3.8 teeth (0.5 teeth/year), those in group B 3.2 (0.4 teeth/year), and in group C, patients lost 2.0 teeth (0.2 teeth/year). About half of the patients lost no teeth (group A 43%, B 42%, C 55%), and only 17 subjects lost more than 3. At the 2nd examination, an increase in interdental bone was found only in group C (+0.13 mm), while groups A and B lost 0.57 mm and 0.31 mm of alveolar bone level, respectively (p<0.05 group C versus A and B). Systematic periodontal treatment stops interdental bone loss and decreases the rate of tooth loss in most cases. Periodontal surgery without regular follow-up care cannot prevent further periodontal destruction, but it can delay it.

Inhibition of Alveoloar Bone Loss During Maturation of the Rat

The effects of dichloromethylene diphosphonate (C12MDP) on previously described maturational bone loss were quantified in 24 Wistar rats. Four groups of six animals each were treated daily from 18 to 28 weeks of age with a subcutaneous injection of a 0.1, 1.0 or 10mg/kg dose of C12MDP or were sham treated with 0.9% NaC1. Prior to sacrifice, all animals were double‐labeled with tetracycline. The interdental bone between first and second maxillary molars was evaluated on decalcified stained sections and on undecalcified ground sections by digitizing morphometry. No significant differences in periodontal ligament width, bone height, osteoclast numbers or tetracycline labeled surface were detected. Significantly greater bone area (p&lt;0.01) and bone width (p&lt;0.005), and significantly fewer osteoblasts/mm of bone surface (p&lt;0.001) were measured in rats treated with 10 mg/kg doses of C12MDP; and a dose response was demonstrated. It was concluded that C12MDP prevented interdental bone loss by inhibiting bone resorption, and that bone formation may have been indirectly reduced through a coupling mechanism.

Oral manifestations of cystinosis

Cystinosis is a genetically determined metabolic disorder. It is characterized by the deposition of cystine crystals in several tissues, photophobia, and retardation of growth in addition to the characteristic signs of vitamin D-resistant rickets. Oral findings are variable and may include stomatitis, retarded dental calcification age, delayed eruption of deciduous and permanent teeth, interdental bone loss, bell-shaped roots, enlarged pulp chambers, periapical radiolucencies, and absence of the lamina dura.