Evaluation of the Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN) in Dialysis Patients Referring to the Hemodialysis Department of 5th Azar Hospital in Gorgan City, 2017- 2018

Background and aim: Patients who undergo hemodialysis treatment have problems like periodontal diseases because of the side effects of their illness or their drugs. This study evaluates periodontal problems and their therapeutic needs by assessing the CPITN index in patients with dialysis to take a step toward the periodontal health of these patients.
Materials and methods: This study was performed on 55 dialysis Patients admitted to the ward of hemodialysis of the 5th Azar Gorgan Hospital, who were eligible. After giving necessary explanations, the day after their dialysis treatment, they received a periodontal examination. We used SPSS18 for statistical analysis of the data.
Results: Measurement of the CPITN index showed that normal periodontal status (code 0): 7.3%, bleeding on probing (code 1): 10.9%, dental calculus (code 2): 49.1%, low depth pockets (code 3): 27.3%, deep pockets (code 4): 5.5%. In other words, four patients (7.3%) didn’t need any treatments, 6 of them (10.9%) needed oral hygiene instruction, 42 of them (76.4%) needed oral hygiene instruction and scaling, and 3 of them (5.5%) needed advanced periodontal treatments.
Conclusion: This study shows that most hemodialysis patients were not in a good situation for periodontal diseases and needed treatments. Also, it was found that the CPITN index does not matter on the sex or age, but it has a meaningful relationship with the duration of dialysis treatment; in other words, the longer duration of dialysis treatment causes more periodontal problems.