JOHCD  www.johcd.org  2010;4(Spl) 7 Prevalence of Periodontal Diseases in India Vipin Agarwal 1 , Manish Khatri 2 , Guljot Singh 3 , Geeti Gupta 4 , CM Marya 5 , Vimal Kumar 6 Contact Author Dr. Vipin Agarwal E-mail: drvipinagarwal@hotmail.com J Oral Health Comm Dent 2010;4(Spl)7-16 1 Professor and Head Department of Periodontology Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies Kadrabad, Modinagar, UP 2 Professor Department of Periodontology Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies Kadrabad, Modinagar, UP 3 Reader Department of Periodontology Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies Kadrabad, Modinagar, UP 4 Senior Lecturer Department of Periodontology Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies Kadrabad, Modinagar, UP 5 Professor and Head Department of Public Health Dentistry Sudha Rustagi College of Dental Sciences and Research, Faridabad 6 Post Graduate Student Department of Periodontology Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies Kadrabad, Modinagar, UP ABSTRACT Periodontal diseases, dental caries, malocclusion and oral cancer are among the most prevalent dental diseases affecting people worldwide as well as in Indian community. There is no national oral health data bank in India which reflects the prevalence of different oral diseases and risk factors responsible for them. No national oral health survey has been conducted in the country till date. Prevalence of disease is the key factor for effective and sound oral health care planning. Some cross sectional surveys has been conducted in various regions of the country at local level but those observations cannot be generalized for the whole community because of the great diversity in composition of Indian populations e.g. literacy rate in Kerala is more than 90% and in Bihar it is about 40%. Males are more literate than females. 70% of the population in India continues to live in rural areas. Different cross sectional surveys or studies showing prevalence of periodontal diseases mainly in the last twenty years have been collected from different sources and compiled in this article to give a comprehensive outlook of the present status and scenario of periodontal diseases in different population of Indian community. KEY WORDS: Periodontal disease, Prevalence INTRODUCTION Periodontal diseases, dental caries, malocclusion, and oral cancer are the major dental problems effecting people worldwide as well as in Indian community. Periodontal diseases include a group of chronic inflammatory diseases that affect the periodontal supporting tissues of teeth and encompass destructive and nondestructive diseases. Chronic periodontitis is the most common form of destructive periodontal disease. Aggressive periodontitis encompasses rapidly progressive form of periodontitis. Two other groups of destructive periodontal disease exist, including periodontitis as a manifestation of systemic diseases and necrotizing periodontal diseases. Gingivitis is inflammation of the soft tissue without apical migration of the junctional epithelium. It is a reversible nondestructive disease that does not involve loss of periodontal tissue. Prevalence is defined as the number of cases of a disease in existence at a certain time within a community. It is usually calculated for one point or cross section in time. Incidence measures the rate of appearance of new cases in a population. Risk is defined as the probability of occurrence of the disease in the population during a given time interval in the future. These are the basic parameters used in epidemiology to estimate the disease load and determine the probable risk factors for that particular disease at community level. Prevalence studies commonly are cross sectional surveys whereas incidence will be estimated by longitudinal studies comes under observational epidemiology. The amount of disease present in a community is the key factor in health planning at large scale(1). POPULATION COMPOSITION IN INDIA The total population of India (approximately 1022 million) spreads over more than 6.4 lakhs villages, 5661 towns and cities, 5564 tehsils/talukas, 7 union territories and 28 states. India is predominantly rural as over 72% of people continue to live in rural areas. The proportion of urban population to the total has been increasing steadily at a faster pace(2). According to 1991 census 23 cities had a population of more than 10 lakhs each, they are called the metropolitan or million plus cities and these account for 65% of CURRENT CONCEPT Journal of Oral Health Community Dentistry &