Presence of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans in young individuals: a 16‐year clinical and microbiological follow‐up study

AIM: To look for clinical signs of periodontal disease in young adults who exhibited radiographic bone loss and detectable numbers of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans in their primary dentition. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Periodontal status and radiographic bone loss were examined in each of the subjects 16 years after the baseline observations. Techniques for anaerobic and selective culture, and checkerboard, were used to detect periodontitis-associated bacterial species. The isolated A. actinomycetemcomitans strains were characterized by polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Signs of localized attachment loss were found in three out of the 13 examined subjects. A. actinomycetemcomitans was recovered from six of these subjects and two of these samples were from sites with deepened probing depths and attachment loss. Among the isolated A. actinomycetemcomitans strains, serotypes a-c and e, but not d or f, were found. None of the isolated strains belonged to the highly leucotoxic JP2 clone, and one strain lacked genes for the cytolethal distending toxin. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that the presence of A. actinomycetemcomitans and early bone loss in the primary dentition does not necessarily predispose the individual to periodontal attachment loss in the permanent dentition.