Efficacy of Photodynamic Therapy as an Adjunct to Full-mouth Root Planing in the Treatment of Periodontitis Assessed by Real-time PCR: A Microbiological and Clinical Study

Background and aims. The aim of this investigation was to compare clinical and microbiological effectiveness of adjunctive photodynamic therapy (PDT) in the treatment of periodontitis.

Materials and methods. Twenty-four subjects (14 women and 10 men) diagnosed with moderate to severe chronic periodontitis underwent scaling and root planing (SRP). One tooth in each quadrant (probing depth >4 mm) was selected for combined PDT and SRP (PDT group) with the contralateral tooth (SRP group), as a control site (SRP-treated site). Clinical assessment was carried out at baseline and 1 and 3 month later. Microbial assessment was carried out by real-time PCR. Periodontal probing depth (PPD) was considered as the primary outcome.

Results. Baseline PPDs were 4.86±0.77 and 4.04±0.65 in the SRP and PDT groups, respectively (P>0.05), which decreased to 3.65±0.58 in the SRP and 3.86±0.56 in the PDT groups after one month and to 3.20±0.68 in the SRP and 3.34±0.56 in the PDT groups three months later. Although values decreased significantly in both groups after one (P=0.001 in the SRP and P=0.001 in the PDT groups) and three months (P=0.001 in the SRP and P=0.001 in the PDT groups) the inter-group differences were not significant after one (P=0.25) and three months (P=0.51). Clinical measurements showed significant decreases after one and three months at both sites, without inter-group differences, except for bleeding on probing after one (P=0.004) and three months (P=0.0001).

Conclusion. Subgingival application of PDT combined with scaling and root planing could not improve clinical and microbiological results.