Assessment of Attachment Level by Laser in Pocket Therapy.

BACKGROUND: Scaling and root planing is the gold standard non-surgical therapy in patients with periodontitis. However, mechanical debridement alone may not eradicate all periopathogens from subgingival niches. Adjunctive use of diode laser in pocket therapy may improve tissue healing by its bactericidal and detoxification effects in subgingival areas. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare effectiveness of scaling and root planing alone and scaling and root planing along with diode laser in chronic periodontitis patients. METHODS: This is a prospective comparative study conducted in which 30 chronic periodontitis patients with at least one site with clinical attachment loss ?3mm in each contralateral quadrant were included and divided into Site A (control) scaling and root planing only and Site B (test) scaling and root planing with diode laser therapy. Clinical parameters (Plaque Index, Gingival Index, Probing Pocket Depth and Clinical Attachment Level) were recorded at baseline, one month and three months postoperatively and compared. Student's t-test was used to analyze intra and inter site mean variation. RESULTS: Site A and Site B showed significant improvements in clinical parameters at three months postoperatively (p ?0.05) with better improvement observed in Site B (p ?0.05).   Conclusions: The use of diode laser as an adjunct to scaling and root planing can be considered as an effective treatment modality for the management of chronic periodontitis than scaling and root planing alone.

Comparative analysis of hyaluronan gel and xanthan-based chlorhexidine gel, as adjunct to scaling and root planing with scaling and root planing alone in the treatment of chronic periodontitis: A preliminary study.

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of hyaluronan (HA) and chlorhexidine (CHX) gels as adjunct to scaling and root planing (SRP) in the treatment of chronic periodontitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty patients within the age group of 30-65 years recruited to participate in the study were randomly equally divided into three groups. Complete SRP and subgingival debridement were performed within 6 h in all the patients. For control (Group I) patients, SRP was the only treatment modality given; for Group II and III patients, at least 8 teeth with 4-8 mm probing pocket depth (PPD) were selected for subgingival application of HA gel and CHX gel, respectively. Clinical periodontal parameters such as gingival index, PPD, and clinical attachment level (CAL) were recorded at baseline and 3 months, whereas plaque index was recorded at baseline, 1 month, and 3 months. For measuring systemic/hematological parameters, blood samples for laboratory tests for total leucocyte count (TLC), differential leucocyte count (DLC), and C-reactive protein (CRP) were obtained using standard 2-mL syringe from each subject in all the three groups at baseline, 24 h, and on the 1 month and 3 months post-baseline. RESULTS: In all the three groups, a significant reduction in PPD and gain in CAL were observed between baseline and 3 months follow-up (P< 0.05); however, at 3 months, change in PPD and CAL was more in Group II than Group III, but the difference was non-significant, and Group I (control) showed less changes in PPD and CAL than both experimental groups. Only one patient revealed positive value for CRP at baseline only, and hence could not be statistically analyzed. In all the three groups, the peak values for TLC count were observed at 24 h. At 1-month and 3-month intervals, a significant improvement in TLC and DLC counts was observed among the experimental (HA gel/SRP and Xan-CHX gel) groups as compared to control group (SRP alone).