Periodontal disease
| Periodontitis | |
|---|---|
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| This radiograph shows significant bone loss between the two roots of a tooth (black region). The spongy bone has receded due to infection under tooth, reducing the bony support for the tooth. | |
| Pronunciation |
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| Classification and external resources | |
| Specialty | Dentistry |
| ICD-10 | K05.4 |
| DiseasesDB | 29362 |
| MedlinePlus | 001059 |
| MeSH | D010518 |
Periodontitis, also known as gum disease and pyorrhea, is a set of inflammatory diseases affecting the tissues surrounding the teeth. Periodontitis involves progressive loss of the alveolar bone around the teeth, and if left untreated, can lead to the loosening and subsequent loss of teeth.
Periodontitis is caused by microorganisms that adhere to and grow on the tooth's surfaces, along with an over-aggressive immune response against these microorganisms. A diagnosis of periodontitis is established by inspecting the soft gum tissues around the teeth with a probe (i.e., a clinical examination) and by evaluating the patient's X-ray films (i.e., a radiographic examination), to determine the amount of bone loss around the teeth. Specialists in the treatment of periodontitis are periodontists; their field is known as "periodontology" or "periodontics".
The 1999 classification system for periodontal diseases and conditions listed seven major categories of periodontal diseases, of which 2–6 are termed destructive periodontal disease, because the damage is essentially irreversible. The seven categories are as follows:
Moreover, terminology expressing both the extent and severity of periodontal diseases are appended to the terms above to denote the specific diagnosis of a particular patient or group of patients.
The "extent" of disease refers to the proportion of the dentition affected by the disease in terms of percentage of sites. Sites are defined as the positions at which probing measurements are taken around each tooth and, generally, six probing sites around each tooth are recorded, as follows:
If up to 30% of sites in the mouth are affected, the manifestation is classified as "localized"; for more than 30%, the term "generalized" is used.
The "severity" of disease refers to the amount of periodontal ligament fibers that have been lost, termed "clinical attachment loss". According to the American Academy of Periodontology, the classification of severity is as follows:
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