BPE guidelines: british society of periodontology revision 2016

In 1985 the Fédération Dentaire Internationale (FDI) developed a simplified periodontal screening examination for dental practice, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Community Periodontal Index for Treatment Needs (CPITN) index that was then used to assess levels of periodontal diseases for epidemiological purposes. This was quickly adopted by many countries as a fast and reliable screening tool for general practitioners and, in the UK, it was developed by the British Society of Periodontology as the The Basic Periodontal Examination (BPE). The BSP published their first set of guidelines on the use of BPE in 1986. Since then the guidelines have become accepted by academic, teaching, practice and legal bodies as the basic standard for initial periodontal assessment of all patients receiving general examinations. Following the original 1986 publication, which was widely discussed in the dental press,^1,2,3,4,5 the guidelines have undergone periodic revisions in 1994, 2000, 2011 and now in 2016.