Periodontal Conditions of Children and Adolescents Attending an Oral Health Program

Objective: To evaluate the periodontal conditions of children and adolescents aged 7 to 14 years attending an oral health program. Method: This was a cross-sectional study with a population composed by 532 individuals selected from a universe of 16,094 students and divided into two groups according to the age group: 272 individuals aged 7 to 10 years and 260 individuals aged 11 to 14 years. The exam was carried out according to the guidelines of the partial and total Periodontal Screening and Recording (PSR) in order to determine the periodontal conditions and the treatment needs of the individuals. Kappa statistics was applied to assess the agreement between total and partial PSR. The influence of the factors of interest on the alterations of the periodontal conditions was analyzed by Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. The significance level was set at 5%. Results: Data obtained for both partial and total PSR revealed that code 1 was the most prevalent among the 7-10-year-old and 11-14-year-old individuals, while code 4 was the least prevalent. The agreement between total and partial PSR was excellent (k=0.830; p<0.001). Conclusion: Partial PSR can be effectively used as an initial screening method of the periodontal conditions in children and adolescents.