NASA: A Proposed Classification System for Gingival Recession

Introduction: Periodontal disease affects a vast majority of individuals worldwide but is often neglected or overseen by general practitioners and patients alike. Gingival recession which is a prominent clinical feature of periodontitis is not properly diagnosed or treated owing to the difficulty in categorizing the recession and assessing the suitable ones for treatment. Although various classifications have been proposed for gingival recession, Miller’s classification system is most widely used by many clinicians till date. Materials and Methods: A literature search was done using search engines Pubmed, Google scholar to identify all proposed classification systems for gingival recession. All the classification systems were assessed for their merits and demerits. Result and Discussion: The proposed classification for gingival recession uses numerical values and Cementoenamel Junction (CEJ) as the reference point which is easier to identify. Also it takes into consideration the interdental papillary height and incorporates lingual / palatal recession in the classification Conclusion: Barring the limitations of various proposed classifications, an attempt has been made by the authors to design a new classification system that is clinician friendly and addresses the drawbacks of the existing ones.