Periodontal Presenting Complaints in a Teaching Hospital: Prevalence and characteristics

Abstract

Objective: To examine the prevalence and
characteristics of periodontal presenting complaints
among dental patients that attended University of
Benin Teaching Hospital.
Methods: This was part of a larger cross-sectional study
among University of Benin Teaching Hospital
Outpatient Dental Clinic patients conducted between
July and December, 2017. A self-administered
questionnaire was used to elicit their complaints with
particular emphasis on periodontal complaints. An
intraoral examination was carried out to assess their
oral hygiene and carious status.
Results: A total of 8 periodontal related main
presenting complaints were recorded from 80 out of
394 patients giving a 20.3% prevalence. Nearly half
(42.5%) of the participants reported deposits/stains as
their complaint. Gum pain and bleeding gum accounted
for 16.3% and 6.3% of the complaints respectively. The
majority of the participants were young adults (72.5%),
females (56.3%), single (61.3%), had tertiary education
(80.0%) and were Edo indigenous people (51.3%).
Aesthetic related complaints constituted 58.8% of the
complaints. Females reported more deposits/stains,
demand to clean their teeth and swollen gum while
males reported more gum pain, sensitivity, bleeding
gum, mobile tooth/teeth and mouth odour. Patients
with symptomatic complaints were likely to smoke,
indulge in alcohol consumption, have poor oral hygiene
and dental caries.
Conclusion: Periodontal presenting complaints which
were mainly aesthetic in nature constituted about one
fifth of all main presenting complaints in outpatient
dental clinic of a teaching hospital in Nigeria. This
reflected a high periodontal treatment need so
development of manpower to meet such need is
recommended.