An epidemiologic survey of periodontal disease in Dutch adults.

An epidemiologic survey was carried out to assess the prevalence and severity of periodontal disease in randomly selected samples of employed populations in the Netherlands. Of the 1,337 persons examined by five examiners, 19.8% were edentulous; 61% of dentate persons had intense gingivitis in an average of 2.4 segments of their mouths; 53% had pockets of 3-6 mm and a further 10.1% had pockets of greater than 6 mm. The prevalence of gingivitis and pocketing increased with increasing age and decreasing levels of education. As no measures of predicting compliance were used and because treatment philosophies differ, no reasonable assessment of treatment needs could be made.