VOLUME 11 , ISSUE 5 ( September-October, 2020 ) > List of Articles
Subasree Soundarajan, Sankari Malaippan, Priya L Gajendran
Citation Information : Soundarajan S, Malaippan S, Gajendran PL. Relationship between Chief Complaints and Severity of Periodontitis in Patients Seeking Periodontal Therapy: A Retrospective Study. World J Dent 2020; 11 (5):396-401.
DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10015-1760
License: CC BY-NC 4.0
Published Online: 28-09-2020
Copyright Statement: Copyright © 2020; The Author(s).
Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between chief complaints (CCs) and severity of periodontitis in patients seeking periodontal treatment at Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai. Materials and methods: This retrospective study was carried out by analyzing the patient records from June 2019 to March 2020. Two hundred and forty-four patients who reported to the Department of Periodontics, seeking periodontal therapy in this period were included in the study. Parameters assessed were (a) demographic details—patient name, patient identity number, age, and sex; (b) periodontal parameters—periodontal probing depth (PDD), loss of attachment (LOA), bleeding on probing (BOP), severity of periodontitis (mild, moderate, and severe); (c) CCs and type of CCs (chronic symptomatic, acute symptomatic, and asymptomatic). Chi-square test was performed to assess the relationship between type of CC and severity of periodontitis using SPSS version 23.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Results: The overall distribution of the CCs shows that most common CC was bleeding gums (22.95%), second most common CC was missing teeth (17.62%), and third most common CC was tooth pain (15.68%), followed by mobile teeth (14.75%), swollen gums (9.02%), teeth moved position (6.56%), sensitivity (5.33%), pain on chewing (2.05%), bad breath (2.05%), pus discharge (1.64%), pain in gums (0.82%), need gum treatment (0.82%), and cleaning (0.41%). Chi-square test shows that there is a significant relationship between type of CC and severity of periodontitis with a p value of 0.015. Conclusion: The most common CC reported was bleeding gums. But further longitudinal studies with larger sample size are needed to be performed. Clinical significance: Patient's CC is considered as a vital component for providing competent and good quality healthcare. The severity of the disease is said to have an influence on the CCs reported by the patients.