She was born in 1975 in Tekirdag. She completed her dental education at Hacettepe University Faculty of Dentistry in 1997 and her PhD at Hacettepe University Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Periodontology in 2001. In 2001, she started to work at Süleyman Demirel University Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Periodontology. In 2003, she was appointed as Assistant Professor, in 2009 as Associate Professor and in 2014 as Professor. Prof. Dr. Zuhal Yetkin Ay, who still continues to work as a faculty member at the same university, is a member of the Turkish Society of Periodontology, European Federation of Periodontology and Osseder. Her research interests include classification of periodontal diseases, systemic inflammatory burden associated with periodontitis, relationships between systemic diseases and periodontal diseases, aging and its effect on periodontal tissues, Th17 cells in periodontal disease pathogenesis.
Periodontal inflamed surface area (PISA) is an index that measures the surface area of the bleeding pocket epithelium in mm2 to determine the inflammatory burden from periodontitis lesions and is calculated using the traditional clinical parameters used to determine periodontal health/disease, namely bleeding on probing and gingival recession in combination with pocket depth and clinical attachment loss. The classifications of periodontal diseases used to date, which are based on the threshold values of pocket depth and clinical attachment loss, evaluate periodontitis only linearly and do not give a clear idea about the amount of inflamed surface. The current classification of periodontal and peri-implant conditions and diseases includes reference to C-reactive protein (CRP) as a marker of systemic inflammation.
In this presentation, the PISA index, its relationship with systemic inflammatory burden, its contribution to the classification of periodontal diseases, and its use in determining the relationship between periodontitis and systemic diseases will be summarized in the light of the study findings in the literature.