Occurrence, Extension and Severity of the Gingival Recession in a Greek Adult Population Sample

Background and aim. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the frequency, extension and severity of the gingival recession in a Greek adult population sample. Materials and methods. The study was performed on 800 patients, 336 males and 446 females between 18-77 years old, which sought dental treatment in a private dental practice. All measurements of recession depth and width were done with a periodontal probe and under sufficient illumination. The type of gingival recessions was evaluated based on Miller’s classification. Statistical analysis was accomplished using chi-square test. Results. The overall plaque indices were significantly reduced from 39.37 ± 20.76 to 20.62 ± 13.42 using the tooth wipe, and from 35.82 ± 16.82 to 19.70 ± 11.15 using the manual brush (P = 0.000). There were no significant differences between tooth wipe and manual brush for removing plaque at total surfaces (46.01 ± 17.2% vs. 47.73 ± 17.04%, P = 0.75) and proximal surfaces (28.76 ± 23.15% vs. 43.71 ± 23.77%, P = 0.06). However, the plaque reduction at buccolingual surfaces by tooth wipe was significantly higher than that by manual brush (79.37 ± 23.54% vs. 56.83 ± 22.33%, P = 0.001). Conclusion. Considering the high prevalence of this clinical study, implementation of oral hygiene instructions and conducting analytical and experimental researches would be a necessity.