The purpose of this study was to assess the oral clinical and microbiological status of young adults 6 years after puberty and to compare these findings with the conditions observed during puberty. Clinical and microbiological parameters were monitored in 42 individuals 10 x between the ages of 11 and 14 years. 33 individuals were re-examined 10 years after the start of this monitoring. Microbiology included 2 subgingival samples per subject taken from the mesiobuccal aspects of the upper 1st molars. The samples were subject to continuous anaerobic culturing. Individuals with a marked and sustained increase in mean papillary bleeding scores during puberty (group A, n = 16) differed 6 years later from individuals without pronounced puberty gingivitis (group C, n = 8) in several aspects. Individuals in group A had a significantly higher gingival bleeding tendency and an increased number of sites with more than 3 mm attachment loss. The subjects in group C showed the lowest anaerobic total cultivable counts. Spirochetes were detected only in group A subjects (4 samples in 3 individuals). In all positive sites, spirochetes had been identified at least 8 out of 10 times during puberty. A. actinomycetemcomitans was present in only one individual of group A. P. gingivalis had not been detected during puberty; none of the samples were P. gingivalis positive 6 years later. P. intermedia was found in 27% of all samples, isolates belonging to the P. melaninogenica group of black pigmenting anaerobes had a frequency of 6%, 6 years after puberty.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)