Morphological study of proximal root grooves and their influence on periodontal attachment loss

Abstract

Background: The etiology of periodontal diseases is multifactorial including both systemic and local causes. Local factors such as grooves on root surfaces contribute a great deal to the causation of periodontal diseases. Materials and Methods: Proximal radicular grooves were studied in 150 extracted maxillary and mandibular anterior teeth. Periodontal attachment loss was measured after staining the root surfaces with 0.1% toluidine blue stain. The relationship of the presence and absence of grooves with periodontal attachment loss was also studied. Results: The prevalence of proximal root grooves was found to be 86.67%. The prevalence of grooves on maxillary teeth was 43.42% and on mandibular teeth was 56.67%. A greater loss of attachment was present on grooved surfaces than on nongrooved surfaces. Conclusion: The proximal radicular grooves present as one of the major etiological factors in periodontal diseases.

Keywords

• Attachment loss
• dental plaque
• proximal radicular grooves
• root planning
• scaling