Moore CA, Law JK, Retout M, Pham CT, Chang KCJ, Chen C, Jokerst JV. High-resolution ultrasonography of gingival biomarkers for periodontal diagnosis in healthy and diseased subjects.
Dentomaxillofac Radiol 2022;
51:20220044. [PMID:
35522698 PMCID:
PMC10043620 DOI:
10.1259/dmfr.20220044]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Revised: 04/08/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To determine the capacity of ultrasonographic image-based measurements of gingival height and alveolar bone level for monitoring periodontal health and disease.
METHODS
Sixteen subjects were recruited from patients scheduled to receive dental care and classified as periodontally healthy (n = 10) or diseased (n = 6) according to clinical guidelines. A 40-MHz ultrasound system was used to measure gingival recession, gingival height, alveolar bone level, and gingival thickness from 66 teeth for comparison to probing measurements of pocket depth and clinical attachment level. Interexaminer variability and comparison between ultrasound measurements and probing measurements was performed via Bland-Altman analysis.
RESULTS
Gingival recession and its risk in non-recessed patients could be determined via measurement of the supra- and subgingival cementoenamel junction relative to the gingival margin. Interexaminer bias for ultrasound image analysis was negligible (<0.10 mm) for imaged gingival height (iGH) and 0.45 mm for imaged alveolar bone level (iABL). Diseased subjects had significantly higher imaging measurements (iGH, iABL) and clinical measurements (probing pocket depth, clinical attachment level) than healthy subjects (p < 0.05). Subtraction of the average biologic width from iGH resulted in 83% agreement (≤1 mm difference) between iGH and probing pocket depth measurements.
CONCLUSIONS
Ultrasonography has an equivalent diagnostic capacity as gold-standard physical probing for periodontal metrics while offering more detailed anatomical information.
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