. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2008 Nov 6.

Published in final edited form as: Dent Clin North Am. 2005 Jul;49(3):551–vi. doi: 10.1016/j.cden.2005.03.009

Table 1.

Diagnostic tools to measure periodontal disease at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and clinical levels

Level	Example of process	Example of diagnostic tools
Molecular	Activation of receptors for endotoxin: CD-14; Toll-like receptors	Polymerase chain reaction; DNA- DNA hybridization; laser-capture microdissection
Cellular	Inflammatory cell activation such as neutrophils; osteoclast activation	ELISA; immunohistochemistry
Tissue	Downgrowth of junctional epithelium; bone and connective tissue loss	Histomorphometry; immunohistochemistry
Clinical	Attachment loss	Periodontal probing
	Bone loss	Radiographs