A study on factors associated with pathologic tooth migration.

The purpose of this cross-sectional epidemiological study was to determine the prevalence of pathologic tooth migration (PTM) among periodontal patients and to investigate the relationship and degree of association between PTM and the following factors: bone loss, tooth loss, gingival inflammation according to the gingival index, age, lingual interposition, parafunctions and oral habits. 852 periodontal patients (36.7% male, 63.3% female) whose ages ranged from 19 to 72 years (mean 42.5 +/- 9.9) were studied. PTM was defined as the presence of a developing diastema in the upper anterior sextant, which was not present in the past or already existed but increased. Statistical analysis was performed using the Wald test and the Mantel-Haenszel test. Estimates odds ratio were also calculated to assess increased PTM probability as a function of a single variable, or a combination of several. PTM prevalence of 55.8% was found, and it was statistically associated with bone loss (p<0.001), tooth loss (p<0.001) and gingival inflammation (p<0.001), while no association was observed with the remaining variables. The odds ratio indicated that PTM probability increased between 2.95 to 7.97 times as bone loss increased. For tooth loss this probability increased 2.76 times when no tooth loss was compared to 4 or more teeth lost. Likewise the probability increased 2.23 times when the gingival index was above 2. According to the single effect as well as the combined effect of these 3 main factors, it was concluded that: (1) no single factor by itself is clearly associated with PTM: (2) the factor mainly related to PTM is bone loss, followed by tooth loss and gingival inflammation: (3) as bone loss increases, the association of additional factors with PTM, such as tooth loss and gingival inflammation, increases.