AIM: To investigate the influence of probing pressure on the probing pocket depth (PPD) in diseased and healthy periodontal tissue conditions through a systematic review. In addition, to facilitate comparison of the study outcomes, an attempt was made to provide a correction factor that compensates for the different probing pressures used. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The MEDLINE-PubMed and Cochrane Central Register of controlled trails (Central) were searched up to June 2008 to indentify appropriate studies. RESULTS: The search yielded 3032 titles and abstracts. In total, five papers fulfilled the eligibility criteria. These studies provided data with probing pressures ranging from 51 to 995 N/cm(2). For the evaluation of the results a distribution was made between diseased and healthy/treated sites. The incremental change in PPD in healthy/treated sites decreased as the pressure increased above 398 N/cm(2). In diseased sites, this phenomenon was already present at pressures above 100 N/cm(2). At healthy/treated sites, a mean increase of PPD of 0.002 mm per increase of 1 N/cm(2) in probing pressure could be calculated whereas at diseased sites this value amounted to 0.004 mm. CONCLUSION: The results show that with increasing probing pressure, the PPD increases. The dimensions of the increase are dependent on the periodontal tissue conditions.
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Larsen et al. (2009) studied this question.
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