title: Photographic scoring of gingival overgrowth.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A wide range of methods have been employed to determine the severity of gingival overgrowth resulting in uncertainty regarding the prevalence of the side-effect. There is no simple, non-invasive, objective, blind method for assessing gingival overgrowth.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article aims to describe a method which is suitable for use in large-scale population studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Photographs were taken of the anterior, buccal gingivae and teeth of 925 patients medicated with calcium channel blockers. In addition, each patient was ascribed a clinical gingival overgrowth score. 100 patients had repeat photographs, and a further 10 patients had alginate impressions taken. The models were scored for severity of gingival overgrowth using a described technique. The slides were scored using a modification of this technique.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When photographic and study model scores were compared, photographic scores were consistently higher, and as a result, a photographic score of 38.6% was considered to represent a significant overgrowth. There was good agreement between clinically determined scores and photographic scores (kappa=0.71).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate that this method is suitable for large-scale population studies where it also has the advantage of providing a continuous scale of gingival changes for subsequent statistical analysis.
authors.affiliation: The Dental School, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Seymour
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Thomason
mesh_terms: D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers / Q000009:adverse effects; D019214:Gingival Overgrowth / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D003765:Models, Dental; D015588:Observer Variation; D010781:Photography / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016037:Single-Blind Method
chemical_list: D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers