title: Profile of periodontal conditions in selected West Malaysian adults.
abstract: To obtain the profile of periodontal conditions in West Malaysian adults, five small scale surveys were carried out on selected occupational adult groups, 20-54 years old, between 1987 to 1990. Periodontal assessment was made using the CPITN index. In all, 779 subjects were examined. Results indicated that only 16% of the adults examined had healthy gingivae. Bleeding of the gingivae was limited to the younger (20-24 years) age group. Calculus is highly prevalent in at least 65.5% of all the subjects examined. Periodontal pockets were limited to mostly shallow pockets and the risk of developing pockets increased with increasing age. Both navy personnel and factory workers showed a higher number of healthy sextants across all ages as compared to the other three occupational groups; viz., rubber tappers, villagers and government workers. The rubber tappers were the only group with deep pockets, with the prevalence ranging between 8 to 25%. Implications of the findings to the Malaysian dental delivery system are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Rahimah
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009066:Mouth, Edentulous / Q000453:epidemiology; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010512:Periodontal Index; D015995:Prevalence