Twenty-two women were evaluated for this study. They were attending the postmenopausal clinic, Seoul National University Hospital and generally healthy except osteoporosis. They had experienced menopause not less than one year when we began to examine them. Bone densities of lumbar area(L2-L4) was determined by DEXA(LUNAR-expert Co,. U.S.A). We diagnosed osteoporosis when T-score was below -2.5 and healthy state when T-score was over -1. Osteoporotic(10 female), not hormone-treated group and healthy control group(12 female) were asked for their age, menopausal age, menopausal period and the number of remaining teeth and examined clinically for plaque index(PI), gingival index(GI), clinical attachment loss(CAL) on their 6 Ramfjord index teeth. Intraoral radiographs were taken in maxillary anterior zone. All films were equally exposed and developed. Each films was digitized and analysed using image processing software, Scion image. Alveolar bone regions of interest were selected and Intensity of each pixel was quantized in the array ranging from 0(white) to 255(black).

The two groups were comparable with respect age, menopausal age, menopausal period and number of remaining teeth. The osteoporotic women had significantly lower alveolar bone density than controls in maxilla. But no significant difference was found with respect clinical attachment loss, plaque index and gingival index.

Supported by the Ministry of Public Health and Welfare, Korea (HMP-00-CH-10-0009).