Subgingival temperature (I). Relation to baseline clinical parameters.

44 subjects ranging in age from 14-71 years were measured at 6 sites per tooth for gingival redness, plaque accumulation, suppuration, bleeding on probing, pocket depth and attachment level. Subgingival temperatures were measured at the same 6 sites per tooth using a periodontal temperature probe (Periotemp, Abiodent, Danvers, MA). This instrument was also used to measure each subject's sublingual temperature in order to compute the differences between sublingual and subgingival temperature. Relationships were sought between the baseline clinical parameters and the temperature variables in subjects and at sites. The mean and standard deviation of the sublingual temperatures for the 44 subjects was 36.6 +/- 0.4 degrees C (range 35.8-37.6 degrees C). The mean of each subject's mean whole mouth subgingival temperature was 1.9 degrees C lower, 34.8 +/- 0.6 degrees C (range 33.4-36.1 degrees C). The differences of the mean subgingival temperature from sublingual ranged from -0.8 to -3.2 degrees C (average -1.9 +/- 0.5 degrees C). Mean temperature difference for a subject correlated with % of sites with plaque (rs = 0.45), redness (rs = 0.33), bleeding on probing (rs = 0.44), % of sites with attachment level greater than 3 mm (rs = 0.44), mean pocket depth (rs = 0.44) and mean attachment level (rs = 0.39). There were higher mean temperatures at sites exhibiting or not exhibiting plaque (35.0, 34.5 degrees C), redness (34.9, 34.6), bleeding on probing (35.1, 34.7) and suppuration (35.4, 34.8). Sites with pockets less than 4, 4-6 and greater than 6 mm had mean temperatures of 34.6, 35.2, 35.8 degrees C, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)