occurrence, extension and severity of the gingival recession in a greek adult population sample

background and aim. the aim of the present study was to evaluate the frequency, extension and severity of the gingival recession in a greek adult population sample. materials and methods. the study was performed on 800 patients, 336 males and 446 females between 18-77 years old, which sought dental treatment in a private dental practice. all measurements of recession depth and width were done with a periodontal probe and under sufficient illumination. the type of gingival recessions was evaluated based on miller’s classification. statistical analysis was accomplished using chi-square test. results. the overall plaque indices were significantly reduced from 39.37 ± 20.76 to 20.62 ± 13.42 using the tooth wipe, and from 35.82 ± 16.82 to 19.70 ± 11.15 using the manual brush (p = 0.000). there were no significant differences between tooth wipe and manual brush for removing plaque at total surfaces (46.01 ± 17.2% vs. 47.73 ± 17.04%, p = 0.75) and proximal surfaces (28.76 ± 23.15% vs. 43.71 ± 23.77%, p = 0.06). however, the plaque reduction at buccolingual surfaces by tooth wipe was significantly higher than that by manual brush (79.37 ± 23.54% vs. 56.83 ± 22.33%, p = 0.001). conclusion. considering the high prevalence of this clinical study, implementation of oral hygiene instructions and conducting analytical and experimental researches would be a necessity.