Objectives:

To identify and analyze the methodological characteristics of periodontal health research of the Spanish military personnel in national territory through a bibliographic review.

Data sources:

PRISMA methodology using bibliographic search sources: PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Dialnet Plus. MeSH terms and keywords were used in the search strategy.

Selection of studies:

Studies of Spanish military populations that evaluated their periodontal health were reviewed, excluding those carried out in the area of operations, periodontal emergencies, oral health studies that did not include periodontal examinations, and those with reduced scientific relevance or unpublished.

Data collection:

1974 studies were initially identified. To proceed with the selection, the abstracts were reviewed, and if necessary the complete papers, rejecting those that did not meet the inclusion criteria, finally choosing 13 publications.

Data synthesis:

The studies found were published between 1987 and 2020, mostly in the Spanish Army, in Andalusia and with a descriptive, cross-sectional design. The samples ranged between 170 and 1530 subjects, mainly from male undertaking the mandatory military service whose age was around 20 years. Most used the WHO periodontal indices and manual probes.

Conclusions:

The investigation of periodontal health in the Spanish military population is limited despite its clinical relevance and repercussion on the operation of the units. The research carried out in Spain on this specific professional group is mainly descriptive and through observational design studies.