OVARIAN FUNCTION IN PERIODONTOSIS

¹ Department of Biochemistry, School of Dental and Oral Surgery, and College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, N. Y.

1. Thirty-three female patients with periodontosis were studied to ascertain the quality of ovarian activity, employing indices of: serial vaginal smears, simultaneous oral smears (in 16 cases), and basal body temperature records.

2. Of the 33 subjects studied by vaginal smears, alone or in conjunction with oral smears and by temperature records, 19 showed ovulatory cycles of good quality, 8 of fair quality, and 3 of poor quality. Three patients with anovulatory cycles showed evidence of moderate to marked estrogen deficiency.

3. There was some correspondence between the severity of periodontal disease and the quality of the ovarian cycle, with 15 of the 19 subjects demonstrating ovarian cycles of good quality showing only slight or moderate periodontal involvement, in contrast to 6 of the 14 subjects demonstrating fair, poor, and anovulatory cycles showing only slight or moderate periodontal involvement. All 3 anovulatory cases showed severe involvement.

4. Of the 16 patients in whom simultaneously obtained vaginal and oral smears were studied, 11 showed good correspondence between the series, although in 3 of these there was an indication of ovulation later by 2 to 3 days in the oral series. Five patients showed no correspondence. Two patients with moderate to severe periodontal disease showed fair to good vaginal cycles, but acyclic oral smears with persistence of exfoliation of sheets of cells in the oral series. Intermittent "sheeting" was also observed in a corresponding oral series of a patient with a vaginal cycle of good quality, and slight periodontal involvement.

5. There was no distinctive oral smear picture of periodontosis, though the observed "sheeting" may be related to local gingival involvement.