Prevalence of Gingival Biotypes among Young Dentate North Indian Population: A Biometric Approach

AIM To evaluate the prevalence of various gingival biotypes and to corroborate gingival thickness and gingival biotypes across tooth type, site, and gender. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted across systemically healthy subjects. A systematic clinical evaluation for gingival biotypes and gingival thicknesses was recorded by modified Iwanson's gauge, to the nearest 0.1 mm, probing the gingival sulcus at the midfacial aspect of maxillary and mandibular central incisors and first molars. All measurements were made across a total of 920 sites in 115 subjects (69 female and 46 male) based on gingival transparency and were statistically analyzed. RESULTS A significant agreement on the reproducibility of the measurements was noted. The median overall gingival thickness was recorded at 0.75 mm with interquantile difference of 0.39 mm. The thin biotype variant showed across the ranges of 0.3 to 0.6 mm of gingival thicknesses and thick biotype variant across the ranges of 1.0 to 1.2 mm, with more prevalence in anterior and posterior site respectively. Moreover, for gingi-val thickness of 0.7 mm, the probe visibility showed tendency toward both thin/thick biotype variant in both anterior and posterior segments. The disposition of male participants toward thick biotype and female participants toward the thin biotype variant has been noted. CONCLUSION Within the limitations of the current study, our data support the traditional hypothesis of two main gingival biotypes as distinguishable by gingival transparency. In addition, we provide evidence of existence of intermediate biotypes with respect to gingival thickness. These findings can be utilized as objective guidelines for determination of biotype and can be implicated in many dental operative procedures. How to cite this article: Rathee M, Rao PL, Bhoria M. Prevalence of Gingival Biotypes among Young Dentate North Indian Population: A Biometric Approach. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2016;9(2):104-108.