The prevalence of pathologic tooth migration with respect to the severity of periodontitis

AIM: Pathologic tooth migration (PTM) has been defined as tooth displacement that occurs when the balance among the factors that maintain physiologic tooth position is disturbed by periodontal disease. The aim of this cross-sectional epidemiological study was to determine the prevalence of pathologic tooth migration among patients with periodontitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Recorded documents of 370 patients (72.4% females, 27.6% males) within the age range of 17 to 70 years (mean 37.77 ± 11.46) were studied. Statistical analysis was carried out using t-test and Chi-square test. RESULTS: Pathologic migration prevalence was 11.4% (35/314 patients), however, there was no pathologic migration in patients with mild chronic periodontitis. The Chi-square test showed that there was no statistically significant difference between males and females. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study confirm that pathologic tooth migration is relatively common among periodontal patients and its prevalence is increased by the severity of periodontal disease.