Suppuration-associated bacteria in patients with chronic and aggressive periodontitis.

Background: Suppuration (SUP) on probing may be an indication of active periodontal breakdown. The aim of the present study is to analyze which subgingival species are associated with SUP in patients with chronic (CP) and aggressive (AgP) periodontitis.

Methods: A total of 156 patients with CP and 66 with AgP were submitted to full-mouth periodontal examination and subgingival biofilm sampling (14 sites/patient). The counts of 44 bacterial species were determined by checkerboard. Comparisons between groups and sites were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests, respectively. Associations between frequency of SUP and bacterial species were analyzed by the Spearman correlation coefficient.

Results: The prevalence of SUP in patients with CP was 24.4%, and in patients with AgP it was 30.3%, and the percentage of SUP sites in the groups was 5.72% ± 1.06% and 6.96% ± 1.70%, respectively (P >0.05). SUP sites from patients with CP had significantly higher counts of Veillonella parvula, Dialister pneumosintes, Tannerella forsythia, and Prevotella nigrescens than SUP sites from patients with AgP (P <0.005). Significant positive correlations between high frequency of SUP and high levels of Actinomyces spp, Streptococcus spp., members of the orange complex, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were observed in patients with CP (P <0.05). In patients with AgP, Actinomyces oris, Propionibacterium acnes, P. aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus sanguinis were positively associated with SUP, whereas Prevotella intermedia presented a negative association with SUP (P <0.05).

Conclusions: SUP sites from patients with CP harbored significantly higher counts of several periodontal species than SUP sites from patients with AgP. Actinomyces spp., Streptococcus spp., members of the orange complex, T. forsythia, and certain non-oral pathogens were associated with a high number of sites with SUP.