Premises: Sexual hormones may affect the general health condition of women, as early as puberty, continuing during pregnancy and also after menopause. Variations of the hormonal levels may cause different either local or general pathological modifications. Sexual hormones may also affect periodontal status, favourizing gingival inflammations and reducing periodontal resistance to the action of the bacterial plaque.
Scope: Establishment of the correlations between the debut or the manifestation of menopause and the modifications produced in the superficial periodontium.
Materials and method: Clinical and paraclinical investigations were performed on female patients with ages between 45 and 66 years, involving macroscopic, microscopic and radiological recording of the aspect of the superificial periodontium (gingiva).
Results: Analysis of the histological sections evidenced atrophic and involutive modifications in the marginal superficial periodontium of female patients at menopause.
Conclusions: Sexual hormones intervene in the histological equilibrium of the marginal superficial periodontium, influencing the periodontal health status, which explains the correlation between the subjective symptomatology specific to menopause and the histopatological aspect at epithelial level.
- exual hormones
- marginal superficial periodontium
- menopause