Association between age, gender and severity of gingivitis among children between 6-10 years-a retrospective study

Abstract

Children and adolescents are often affected by a variety of periodontal diseases and conditions. Gingivitis, if it occurs at an early age, tends to increase in its severity and finally peaks at the onset of puberty. However untreated gingival diseases in childhood, may progress to severe forms of periodontal diseases in adulthood. There have been many studies over the years which have analysed the character and factors affecting the distribution of carious lesions no similar measures have been im-plemented for gingivitis and periodontitis in pediatric dentistry. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between gender, age and gingivitis among children between 6-10 years of age visiting Saveetha Dental College. A retrospective study was carried out using digital records of patients who reported to the Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry from June 2019 to March 2020. A total of 103 patients between ages of 6-10 years were finally included for the study evalua-tion. The age, gender and gingival status were observed from the digital records and tabulated on a spreadsheet. The collected data was analysed by computer software SPSS version 20 using Chi square test with the level of significance set at 5%. It was observed that around 46% of the participants had gingivitis. There was no significant association between gender and age and gingival status (p>0.05). Within limits of the study it can be concluded that there is high prevalence of gingivitis among pediatric patients, but there is no significant variation in gingival status by age and gender.