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ePaper created 2016-06-09, 15:16:05 | version 1.38.0
Journal of Oral Science & Rehabilitation 62 Volume 2 | Issue 2/2016 K n o w l e d g e a b o u t p e r i o d o n t a l d i s e a s e a m o n g p a t i e n t s r e f e r r e d t o a s p e c i a l i s t c l i n i c the patients, which might be due to low interest among general practitioners in the etiology and prevention of periodontal disease16 or to inade- quate techniques used to achieve patients’ awareness of the disease and compliance.17, 18 Compliance with periodontal therapy is directly related to its success.13 Gao et al. reviewed the effect of motivational interviewing in improving periodontal health and concluded that dental professionals should assess the presence of ad- equate knowledge of periodontal disease before starting treatment.19 It is important to point out that the patients in our study were asked whether they had any knowledge about periodontal disease and that they answered using their own words, not via a questionnaire requiring selection from multiple options. Their answers were then collated into different groups of causes or risk factors. The majority of the patients cited only one cause and the remainder reported two or more causes. Among the patients who gave only one cause of periodontal disease, the majority cited poor oral hygiene/bacteria;poororalhygiene/bacteriawas alsothemostcommoncausereportedwhendata from all of the patients were considered. The second most common cause was smoking. It is well established that poor oral hygiene is a major riskfactorforperiodontaldisease,asaresmoking, stress, geneticfactors, diabetes, obesityand car- diovascular disease.4 Surprisingly, among those patientswhocitedtwocauses,smokingwasmore commonlymentionedthanwaspoororalhygiene/ bacteria.Itisreportedintheliteraturethatsmok- ing is a risk factor for periodontal disease and resultsinacceleratedonset,severityandprogres- sion ofthe disease,20, 21 but this is the case only in the presence of plaque20 and is related to the numberofcigarettessmokedperday.21 However, in recent years, smoking has been evaluated as a risk factor for periodontal disease together with othersubject-relatedriskfactorsandinthatcon- textdoesnotseemtohaveastrongerimpactthan factorssuchascardiovasculardiseaseorobesity.7 Thus, among the patients involved in our study, smoking seemed to be overestimated almost to the level of poor oral hygiene/bacteria. However, only a few patients cited other sub- ject-relatedriskfactors.Genetics/inheritancehad a slightly higher percentage (17.5%) compared with systemic disease (14.5%) and stress (4.5%). Lindenetal.reportedthatoccupationalstresshas arelationshiptotheprogressionofperiodontitis.22 Peruzzo et al. reviewed the relationship between psychologicalfactorsandperiodontaldiseaseand concluded that there is a positive relationship betweenstressandperiodontaldisease.23 Studies have shown a correlation between poorly con- trolleddiabetesandspecificgenepolymorphisms and periodontal disease.24 Our results on the knowledge of causes of periodontal disease among patients referred to the specialist peri- odontal clinic are in agreement with a similar study by Razzak et al.25 and point to the need to improve patients’ knowledge about periodontal disease and its risk factors. In our study, the majorityofthepatients(70.1%)wereinformedby dental professionals. Conclusion Within the limitations of this study, we conclude thattherateofknowledgeaboutperiodontaldis- easeamongthepatientsreferredtothespecialist periodontal clinic was poor, since 40% of the re- ferred patients had not received any information about the disease. Patients suffering from peri- odontal disease require motivation in order to complywiththetreatment.Therefore, in orderto treat or control periodontal disease effectively, programs that focus on improving both the den- tal professionals’ and the patients’ knowledge about periodontal risk factors and on motivation techniques among general dentists and dental hygienists should be implemented. Competing interests The authorsdeclarethattheyhave nocompeting interests related to this study. This project was self-financed bythe Department ofPeriodontol- ogy at Södra Älvsborg Hospital, Borås, Sweden.