Clinical effects of photodynamic therapy as an adjunct to full-mouth ultrasonic scaling and root planing in treatment of chronic periodontitis.

Background and aims: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a potential strategy to eliminate infection in the specific tissue. It uses lower-power laser to activate a photosensitizing agent. Studies have shown the benefit of PDT in the periodontal treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the periodontal changes after applying PDT as an adjunct to one visit full-mouth SRP (scaling and root planing) with subgingival piezoelectric ultrasonic scaler compared with full-mouth SRP alone.

Methods: A split-mouth randomized clinical trial was designed. Twenty patients with moderate to severe chronic periodontitis were treated with subgingival piezoelectric ultrasonic device alone in control group and adjunct treated with PDT in the test group. Probing pocket depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL), plaque index (PI), gingival bleeding index (GBI) and gingival inflammation index (GI) were evaluated at baseline, 1 month, 3 and 6 months after treatment. Only sites with PD ≥ 4 mm at baseline were calculated.

Results: All periodontal parameters were significantly improved in both groups at 1 month, 3 and 6 months after treatment. All parameters in test group were better than that control group, with statistically significant differences of GBI and GI (P < 0.05) at 3 and 6 months after treatment but no statistically significant differences of PD, CAL and PI.

Conclusions: One visit full-mouth ultrasonic SRP seems to have good enough effort for the periodontal status till 6 months. The adjunct treatment of PDT provided positive effect in term of GBI and GI.