Treatment compliance in patients with aggressive periodontitis – a retrospective case-control study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate if differences according to discontinuation of treatment could be identified between patients with aggressive periodontitis and chronic periodontitis at two specialist clinics of periodontology irrespective of the effects of background factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective case-control study. The variables were registered from dental records. The population consisted of patients referred to two specialist clinics of periodontology during three years. A study group was included consisting of 234 patients with a diagnosis of aggressive periodontitis. A control group with a diagnosis of chronic periodontitis was randomly selected. RESULTS: In total, 234 patients (4% of the referrals) with a diagnosis of aggressive periodontitis were referred to the two periodontal clinics during a period of three years. Forty-two per cent of the non-compliant patients were smokers compared to 31% for the compliers and this difference was statistically significant. Patients with aggressive periodontitis interrupted their periodontal treatment significantly more frequently (46%) compared to those patients with chronic periodontitis (34%). The non-compliant patients had significantly deeper periodontal pockets at baseline as well as significantly more sites with bleeding at probing. In a stepwise logistic regression analysis, aggressive periodontitis, smoking and the relative frequency of sites with periodontal pockets >4 mm at baseline were the remaining variables with a significant influence on the incidence of interrupting ongoing periodontal treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The patient group with aggressive periodontitis interrupted the periodontal treatment significantly more often irrespective of background factors and risk factors, which may be regarded as a major health problem.