Comparison of Two Different Periodontal Disease Classifications At the Patient Level

In the 1999 periodontal disease classification, the diagnosis of chronic and aggressive periodontitis was subdivided into localized and generalized. Chronic periodontitis is an inflammatory disease of supporting tissues followed by pocket formation, gingival recession, periodontal ligament, alveolar bone and attachment loss. Aggressive periodontitis is characterized by rapid periodontal attachment loss and alveolar bone loss in which the patient is systemically healthy, inherited, and the presence of Aggregatibacter Actynomyecetemcomitans in diseased areas.

Due to some deficiencies in the classification defined by Armitage1 in 1999, the need for a new periodontal classification emerged in 2018. These shortcomings are;

1. There is no specific evidence of pathophysiology that differentiates cases into "aggressive" or "chronic" periodontitis or guides different types of treatment.

2 There is little evidence that aggressive and chronic periodontitis are different diseases. However, there is evidence that multiple factors and their interactions influence clinically observable disease outcomes (phenotypes) at the individual level.

3. On a population basis, average rates of periodontitis progression are consistent across all populations observed worldwide. However, there is evidence that certain segments of the population exhibit different levels of disease progression.