The purpose of present investigation was to evaluate the gingival sulcus temperature as a diagnostic parameter in assessing activity of periodontal disease.
This study included the 10 periodontally healthy subjects(mean age : 26 years old) after scaling and root planing and the 7 periodontally diseased patients(mean age : 39-years old). Both groups were systemically healthy. Four sites (MB, DB, MI DO on each tooth were measured : 1096 sites in the healthy subjects and 728 sites in the diseased patients. Sublingual temperature was measured to compensate for subject to subject variation in core temperature.
The results were as follows :
1. The sublingual temperature was within physiologic range in both periodontally healthy subjects and diseased patients.
2. In the periodontally healthy subjects, the gingival sulcus temperature was 430C higher in posterior teeth than anterior teeth(P<0.01) and 2.0C higher in mandibular teeth than maxillary teeth(P<0.01).
3. In the periodontally diseased patients, the gingival sulcus temperature was 3.50C higher in posterior teeth than anterior teeth(P<0.01). The increase of pocket depth and presence of sulcus bleeding and/or suppuration was associated with the higher temperature.
4. The gingival sulcus temperature of anterior teeth and maxillary teeth in the periodontally diseased patients was 120C(P<0.01) and 0.90C higher(P<0.05) than those in the periodontally healthy subjects, respectively.
5. The gingival sulcus temperature of periodontally healthy sites(probing depth less than 3mm) was higher in the periodontally diseased patients than in. the periodontally healthy subjects.
The results suggest that the elevated sulcus temperature observed in the diseased state, compared to the norm, would reflect the increase of inflammatory activity and its measurement can provide a diagnostic indicator in periodontics.
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