Zeba Jafri, Ashu Bhardwaj, Madhuri Sawai, Nishat Sultan
Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India.
DOI: 10.4103/0976-9668.166124

ABSTRACT

Dental plaque is the primary etiologic factor for the periodontal diseases. Although pathogenic bacteria in dental plaque are necessary for the incidence of periodontal disease, but a susceptible host is as important. The susceptibility of the host can be modified by various systemic factors with hormones level being one. The periodontium shows an exaggerated inflammatory response to plaque modified by female sex hormone during puberty, pregnancy, in women taking oral contraceptives and at the postmenopausal stage. This paper presents such few cases where periodontium is influenced by variation in sex steroid hormones of female during different phases of their life time and to discuss how much a same hormone at different age and stage shows an exaggerated gingival response to plaque.

Keywords: Female hormones, periodontium, postmenopause, pregnancy, puberty.