Vascular reaction in plaque-induced gingivitis: a quantitative approach.

The clinical diagnostic features of gingivitis such as redness, swelling and bleeding are based on vascular changes. It would be desirable to directly make use of the vascular changes in the clinical evaluation of gingival inflammation. In the present study, capillary microscopy was used for quantitative evaluation of the vascular reaction of the marginal gingiva in response to experimental plaque formation in 6 healthy students. Low power stereomicroscopy was used and the number of vessel endings was evaluated from stereophotographs. A gradual increase in the number of visible vessel endings was observed over time of plaque accumulation. The mean +/- SEM at baseline was 24.0 +/- 6.30 as compared to 77.0 +/- 10.02 at day 28. After removal of plaque and re-institution of oral hygiene measures, a return toward pre-experimental numbers was observed. Throughout the test the number of vessel endings within the proximal-papillary part of the marginal gingiva was less than that within the basal-labial part. The results indicate that low power stereophotomicroscopy is a useful tool for the clinical study of inflammatory changes in the gingival vasculature.