Microbiological Distribution of Six Periodontal Pathogens Between Untreated Italian and Dutch Periodontal Patients

Aim: To compare prevalence and microbial load of six periodontal-pathogens between Italian and Dutch patients affected by chronic periodontitis, using oligonucleotide probe technology. Material and methods: Subgingival plaque samples data from 352 Italians and 115 Dutch periodontal patients were analyzed and compared. Bleeding on probing (BOP), suppuration, probing pocket depth (PPD), clinical attachment level (CAL), age, gender, ethnicities and smoking habits were recorded. Each data was collected at initial visit. Presence and level of bacterial species were determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction under identical microbiological protocol. Variables were analyzed by means of χ2 test, Mann-Whitney U test, and binary unconditional logistic regression (α = 0.05, adjusted at 0.003 for multiple comparisons). Results: Between populations only Treponema denticola and Porphyromonas gingivalis differed significantly, being more prevalent in the Italian group (p=0.0001). Except for Tannerella forsythia, all bacterial loads significantly differed: Treponema denticola (p=0.0001) and Prevotella intermedia (p=0.001) were higher in Italians; Porphyromonas gingivalis (p=0.001), Fusobacterium nucleatum (p=0.03), Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (p=0.001) were higher in Dutch patients. Deepen PPD increases the probability of all species detection in Italians. Smoke increases the probability to detect Fusobacterium nucleatum (O.R.= 5.29) in Dutch, Tannerella forsythia (O.R.= 4.64) and Treponema denticola (O.R.= 2.44) in Italians. Conclusions: Significant differences about prevalence and bacterial load of 6 periodontal pathogens exist between Italian and Dutch patients affected by chronic periodontitis.