Abstrakt

An Approach to the Microbiological Diagnosis of Chronic Periodontitis: An Overview.

Mohammad Mukhit Kazi, Renu Bharadwaj, Rajeev Saxena, Parag Hadge and Javed Sayyed

Periodontal diseases are diagnosed traditionally by a radiographic and clinical examination. An important disadvantage of diagnosis by this method is that it is difficult to differentiate the stable patients and patients with active disease. The clinical parameters are not sufficient to predict active periodontal disease. Improved knowledge in understanding the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases has lead to the development of various newer diagnostic tests. These can accurately measure the sub-gingival microbial challenge and the host responses to these challenges. The concept of diagnosing the disease with laboratory tests is relatively new to the dental sciences. These tests are useful to predict patients with active sites and to predict which tooth or site will experience clinical attachment loss in near future. In addition diagnostic tests help to categorize patients into different disease categories; i.e. aggressive or chronic periodontitis, they will also help in differentiation of patients who respond or do not respond to treatment. They can also be used to determine the prognoses of either the entire patient or a specific tooth. This review article will help the dental practitioners to rethink about the role of the laboratory in the assessment of chronic periodontitis.