Photographic scoring of gingival overgrowth.
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.
Ellis
J S
JS
The Dental School, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Seymour
R A
RA
Robertson
P
P
Butler
T J
TJ
Thomason
J M
JM
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
D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers