Difference between community periodontal treatment needs and scaling experience during two years in Korea

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the difference rate between community periodontal treatment needs and scaling experience according to demographic and socio-economic levels during two years in Korea. Methods: Two years (2008-2009) of nationally representative data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were used. KNHANES is a nationwide cross-sectional study using a stratified, multistage probability sampling design. The study was conducted on 6,817 and 7,510 subjects. Dependent variables consisted of community periodontal treatment needs, scaling experience, and difference rate between the two factors. The difference rate was calculated using age-sex standardized rate for the comparison of the 2-year data. Independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were conducted to analyze the mean difference. A statistical analysis was conducted using PASW statistics 18.0(SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).

Results: The community periodontal treatment needs decreased from 72.6 % to 71.0% during two years. Meanwhile, the scaling experience increased from 21.2 % to 26.8%. The difference rate decreased from 70.8 % to 62.3%. The gap was higher in the elderly, low-education, and low-income groups (p<.05), and higher in the rural than in the urban (p<.05). It was also higher in without spouse (p<.05). These results were similar between the two consecutive years.

Conclusion: The unmet need for community periodontal treatment has been gradually satisfied. However, the difference rate between the needs and scaling experience was still high in vulnerable groups (the elderly, low-education, and low-income) in Korea.