Prevalence of Gingival Pigmentation and Its Associated Factors among Patients Visiting Tertiary Dental Hospital in Nepal

Abstract

Background

Gingival pigmentation has gained an esthetic concern in recent years. The objective of the study was to assess the prevalence of gingival pigmentation and its associated factors among patients visiting a tertiary dental hospital.

Methods

A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted among 370 patients visiting Department of Periodontics, Gandaki Medical College Teaching Hospital and Research Center, Pokhara, Nepal. The demographic details of the participants, assessment of gingival biotype using probe transparency technique and classification of gingival pigmentation using Dummett-Gupta Oral Pigmentation Index (DOPI) and by Ponnaiyan et al. were recorded. Univariate analysis including frequencies and percentage for demographic data, gingival pigmentation and gingival biotype were calculated. Chi-square test was used to determine the association between gingival pigmentation with age, gender and biotype where p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

Majority of the participants 170(45.34%) belonged to age group 41 to 60 years. The proportion of males 192(51.89%) was higher. Thick gingival biotype 226(61.08%) was found to be more prevalent. The distribution of gingival pigmentation according to Dummett et al. showed DOPI Score 1 was most prevalent 227(61.35%), while Score 3 was least common 8(2.16%). The extent of pigmentation according to Ponnaiyan et al. showed maximum participants 151(40.81%) had Class II pigmentation followed by Class I 121(32.70%), and minimum had Class V pigmentation 3(0.81%). Gingival pigmentation was significantly associated with gender (p=0.04) and gingival biotype (p=0.002), but not with age (p=0.112).

Conclusions

Majority of the participants had DOPI Score 1 and Class II gingival pigmentation. There was an association of gingival pigmentation with gender and biotype but not with age.