Periodontal diseases in an Omani adult population: a preliminary study.

Background: Data on the periodontal status of the adult population in the Arab world are scarce. The aim of this pilot study is to assess the prevalence, extent, and severity of periodontal diseases in an adult group from Oman.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 319 teachers who were randomly sampled from the list of teachers from the Muscat region schools in Oman. Dental caries, tooth loss, and periodontal attachment loss (AL) were recorded for each of the participants. A questionnaire collected data on participants' sociodemographic characteristics, dental-care characteristics, self-rated periodontal status, and self-rated well-being.

Results: A total of 99% of participants had at least one site with probing depth (PD) or clinical AL of ≥ 3 mm. More than one third (36%) of participants had at least one site with AL ≥ 5 mm, and 12% had at least one site with AL ≥ 6 mm; for PD, the prevalence estimates were 26% and 8%, respectively, and a gradient by age group was evident across the different thresholds. Regarding the extent of disease, 17.6% of sites had PD ≥ 3 mm, and 21% of sites had AL ≥ 3 mm.

Conclusions: The prevalence, extent, and severity of periodontitis were higher than estimates reported from industrialized countries, such as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. This is of concern, especially when considering the relatively young age of the study population. Because of this high prevalence, investigation of periodontitis in a national sample of Omanis is desirable to confirm the findings of this study.