Study of plaque and gingivitis in children

PLEASE NOTE: This work is protected by copyright. Downloading is restricted to the BU community: please click Download and log in with a valid BU account to access. If you are the author of this work and would like to make it publicly available, please contact open-help@bu.edu.Thesis (M.Sc.D.)--Boston University, School of Graduate Dentistry, 1975. Pedodontics.Bibliography included.It is widely recognized that dental plaque is the primary etiologic factor in the initiation and per·petuation of the inflammatory conditions affecting the periodontium. McCall in 1938 was the first to mention that all adult periodontal disease has its initiation in childhood. This concept was emphasized by Baer (1957), Parfitt (1963) and lately by Stallard (1967) who stated that although the periodontal disease begins in childhood it is only recognized around the third decade when all the changes are irreversible. Out of periodontosis all the manifestations of periodontal disease in children that have been reported in the literature are related to gingivitis (Zappler, 1948; Bruckner, 1956). Gingivitis has been defined by Massler (1958) as a biphasic phenomenon tending to be papillary, acute and transient in the child. In contrast with the adult in which it is. marginal, chronic, and progressive. Several explanations have been presented in an attempt to clarify such differences: a) a variation in tooth shape (Stallard, 1974); b) variation in periodontal structure (Brill, 1958; Bader and Goldhaber, 1965; Baer, 1974); c) host response (Robinson, 1941; Kelsten, 1955; Hirsch, 1955); d) variations in quality, quantity and pathogenicity.of the plaque (De Araujo et al 1964). It has been demonstrated that in a shallow sulcus gram positive aerobic bacteria dominate specially non hemolytic and alpha hemolytic streptococci. As the sulcus deepened the bacterial population increased. Filamentous and gram negative flora ... [TRUNCATED