Summary: | The aim of this study was to compare data about the prevalence and proportions of the bacterial species <i>Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans</i>, <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis</i>, and <i>Parvimonas micra</i> in periodontitis pocket samples collected from young, <35 years, and old, >35-year-old patients, YP and OP, respectively. The results from the analyses of a total of 3447 subgingival plaque samples analyzed for clinical diagnosis purposes by cultivation regarding the proportions of these species were collected from a database and elucidated. The prevalence of A. <i>actinomycetemcomitans</i> was found to be more than twice as high (OR = 2.96, 95% CI; 2.50–3.50) in samples from the younger (42.2%) than the older group (20.4%) (<i>p</i> < 0.001). The prevalence of <i>P. micra</i> was significantly lower in samples from the younger age group (OR = 0.43, 95%) (<i>p</i> < 0.001), whereas <i>P. gingivalis</i> was similarly distributed (OR = 0.78, 95%) in the two age groups (<i>p</i> = 0.006). A similar pattern was noticed for <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> and <i>P. gingivalis</i> when high proportions (>50%) of the samples of these bacterial species were elucidated. In contrast, the proportion of samples containing >50% with <i>P. micra</i> was lower compared with the two other bacterial species. Furthermore, it was noted that the proportion of samples from old patients containing <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> in combination with <i>P. micra</i> was almost three times higher than in samples when <i>P. micra</i> was replaced by <i>P. gingivalis</i>. In conclusion, <i>A</i><b>.</b><i>actinomycetemcomitans</i> showed an increased presence and proportion in samples from young patients compared with the old patients, while <i>P. gingivalis</i> was similarly distributed in the two age groups. <i>P. micra</i> showed an increased presence and proportion in samples from old patients compared with the young patients.
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