Non-surgical periodontal therapy with systemic antibiotics in patients with untreated chronic periodontitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the effectiveness of different systemic antibiotics in combination with scaling and root planing (SRP) when compared to SRP alone in patients with untreated chronic periodontitis. BACKGROUND: Although chronic periodontitis is mostly treated without adjunctive systemic antibiotics, some recent meta-analyses have shown clinical benefit for some systemic antibiotics when used as an adjunct to SRP. However, there is a wide variety of systemic antibiotic regimens used today. It remains unclear if the selected type of systemic antibiotic influences the magnitude of clinical benefit. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The MEDLINE-PubMed database was searched from their earliest records through May 16, 2013. Several journals were hand searched and some authors were contacted for additional information. Outcome measures analysed were mean bleeding on probing change, mean clinical attachment level gain and mean probing pocket depth reduction. Extracted data were pooled using a random effect model. Weighted mean differences were calculated and heterogeneity was assessed. RESULTS: The search yielded 281 abstracts. Ultimately, 95 studies were selected, describing 43 studies meeting the eligibility criteria. Systemic antibiotics showed a significant (p < 0.05) additional pocket depth reduction for moderate (at 3 mo 0.27 mm ± 0.09, at 6 mo 0.23 mm ± 0.10 and at 12 mo 0.25 mm ± 0.27) and deep pockets (at 3 mo 0.62 mm ± 0.17, at 6 mo 0.58 mm ± 0.16 and at 12 mo 0.74 mm ± 0.30). Statistically, no specific type of antibiotic was superior over another. However, when analysing the clinical data for initially moderate pockets or deep pockets, some trends became apparent. CONCLUSION: Systemic antibiotics combined with SRP offer additional clinical improvements compared to SRP alone. Although there were no statistically significant differences, there was a trend that for initially moderate and deep pockets, metronidazole or metronidazole combined with amoxicillin, resulted in clinical improvements that were more pronounced over doxycycline or azithromycin. Additionally, there was a trend that the magnitude of the clinical benefit became smaller over time (1 year).

Non-surgical periodontal therapy with systemic antibiotics in patients with untreated aggressive periodontitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the effectiveness of different systemic antibiotics in combination with scaling and root planing (SRP) compared to SRP alone in patients with untreated aggressive periodontitis. BACKGROUND: In patients with aggressive periodontitis, SRP is often combined with the use of systemic antibiotics. However, the effectiveness of these antibiotics over time and differences in effectiveness between different antibiotics are hardly known. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The MEDLINE-PubMed database was searched from their earliest records until January 20, 2014. Several journals were hand searched and some authors were contacted for additional information. The following outcome measures were analysed: mean probing pocket depth reduction, mean clinical attachment level gain and mean bleeding on probing change. Extracted data were pooled using a random effect model. Weighted mean differences were calculated and heterogeneity was assessed. RESULTS: The search yielded 296 abstracts. Ultimately, 101 articles were selected of which 14 articles met the eligibility criteria. Systemic antibiotics showed a significant (p < 0.05) additional pocket depth reduction for moderate (0.36 ± 0.22 mm at 3 mo, 6 mo 0.42 ± 0.22 mm and 12 mo 0.88 ± 0.27 mm) and deep pockets (0.74 ± 0.36 mm at 3 mo, 6 mo 0.85 ± 0.55 mm and 12 mo 1.26 ± 0.81 mm) and a significant clinical attachment gain for moderate (0.26 ± 0.18 at 3 mo, 6 mo 0.52 ± 0.15 and 12 mo 0.83 ± 0.38) and deep pockets (0.59 ± 0.18 at 3 mo, 0.96 ± 0.21 at 6 mo and 1.00 ± 0.80 at 12 mo). CONCLUSION: For the treatment of patients with aggressive periodontitis, systemic antibiotics combined with non-surgical periodontal therapy resulted in a significant additional effect compared to non-surgical therapy alone. There is a visible trend that showed metronidazole + amoxicillin is the most potent antibiotic combination.