Prevalence of Periodontal Disease and Alveolar Bone Loss in Overweight/Obese Brazilian Adolescents.

Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of periodontal disease and alveolar bone loss in overweight/obese Brazilian adolescents.
Methods: Participants included 12- to 18-year-old adolescents who were allocated into two groups: (1) normal weight; or (2) overweight/obese. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were evaluated to classify overweight/obesity. Clinical measurements included the visible plaque index (VPI) and community periodontal index (CPI). Alveolar bone loss (ABL) was also evaluated by bitewing radiographs.
Results: There were 109 subjects. There were no significant differences between the groups for VPI and CPI code two (P >0.05). CPI code zero was more prevalent in normal weight subjects than in overweight/obese subjects (P <0.05). CPI codes one and three were significantly more frequent in the overweight/obese group (P <0.05). The normal weight subjects revealed a higher percentage of sites with no ABL (P <0.05), while the overweight/obese group had a higher prevalence of incipient ABL with the number of sites greater than one and less than three (P <0.05).
Conclusion: Overweight/obesity may affect the progression of early periodontitis in the presence of poor biofilm control in adolescents, as this group presents more bleeding on probing and pathological periodontal pockets greater than four mm as well as a higher prevalence of sites with incipient alveolar bone loss.